Nursing students' knowledge and anxiety about AIDS: an experimental workshop

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Health Psychology
• Public Health

Background:

• Nursing students often experience anxiety related to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).
• Effective educational strategies are needed to improve both knowledge and emotional responses to AIDS among nursing students.
• Peplau's interpersonal theory provides a framework for understanding the student-patient relationship in health education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of an experiential workshop on nursing students' anxiety and knowledge about AIDS.
• To determine the impact of workshop structure (didactic vs. experiential first) on learning outcomes.
• To explore the role of anxiety recognition in AIDS education.

Main Methods:

• A quasiexperimental design with three groups (experimental and control) of 67 senior nursing students.
• Intervention: A 6-hour workshop incorporating anxiety awareness exercises and AIDS information.
• Data collection involved pretests, posttests, and 6-week follow-up posttests to measure knowledge and anxiety levels.

Main Results:

• The group receiving didactic instruction before experiential exercises showed significantly higher knowledge and lower anxiety scores.
• The control group demonstrated no significant changes in knowledge or anxiety.
• Experiential exercises promoting anxiety recognition were linked to improved learning about AIDS.

Conclusions:

• Anxiety awareness through experiential learning is a key component in effective AIDS education for nursing students.
• The sequence of didactic and experiential learning modules impacts student outcomes.
• This approach can be valuable for enhancing nursing students' preparedness and reducing stigma associated with AIDS.