[Knowledge and attitude of nursing students concerning AIDS in 3 educational institutes of the West Cape]

A survey was done by means of a questionnaire to obtain information on the knowledge and attitudes of 297 nursing students from three training institutions in the Western Cape regarding HIV-infection and AIDS-patients. Results indicated: The average knowledge regarding AIDS scored 72.5% They generally had a positive attitude regarding the caring for AIDS-patients; 81% of the junior and 54% of the senior students were of opinion that their training were inadequate while 91.5% of the respondents held the opinion that the training hospital must provide more training. It is recommended that the curricula of training institutions make adequate provision for relevant training regarding AIDS.