Caring by degrees

Caring is synonymous with nursing and, regardless of the culture, race, lifestyle or sexuality of clients, nurses should care for all clients. However, the emergence of HIV/AIDS brought a new and quite different challenge to nurses with regard to willingness to care. Some nurses expressed a negative attitude toward, and reluctance to care for, those clients with HIV/AIDS, mainly due to fear of contagion based on ignorance about the disease. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was firstly to determine if there were differences in attitudes toward caring for clients with HIV/AIDS in the three different at-risk groups (homosexuals, intravenous drug users and haemophiliacs), as expressed by nursing students at the beginning (Semester 1) and at the end (Semester 7) of a three-and-a-half-year nursing degree programme. The second determination was whether or not there were differences between the two groups of students regarding their knowledge of HIV/AIDS. Data results indicated no significant difference between the two groups of students in regard to caring attitude towards members of the at-risk groups and knowledge of AIDS. This paper discusses the implications of the research findings for nursing and further research.