[Stresses and interaction problems of physicians and nurses in the management of AIDS patients]

Caring for people with AIDS physicians and nurses are confronted with special problems. Compared to other severe illnesses there are specific problems in the relationship between doctors and nurses with their patients due to the similarity in age, the risk of infection and that most of the patients belong to stigmatized, marginal groups, that represent despised and threatening impulses (homosexu-ality, promiscuity, addiction). The results of our survey of 85 physicians and 111 nurses suggest, that physicians and nurses react with a typically professional attitude concerning the identification with AIDS-patients. The "concordant identification", that is induced by the same age of many AIDS-patients, is followed by a "complementary identification" with the professional role that serves as a defence and helps in coping with threatening internal conflicts. Wherein physicians have a mainly neutral attitude and delegate their feelings to the nurses, nurses show an unlimited commitment for AIDS-patients delegating their aggressive reactions to the physicians.