The content of AIDS counselling workshops for nursing students

The need to train nurses to care for people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is an important one. The need, also, to help them to develop counselling skills in this field is also vital. This paper reports the responses of 21 workers in the AIDS field (including nurse educators and teachers) to the question: 'If you were setting up an AIDS counselling course for nurses, what sorts of elements would you have in it?' The responses were content analysed and grouped into 8 categories. These were: information about AIDS; psychology and sociology; attitudinal issues; sexuality; personal issues; counselling; visits from other people and the history of AIDS. The issues within these 8 categories of content for an AIDS counselling skills course for nurses are discussed.