A Study of Assessing Educational Needs on Program Planning for AIDS(Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome) Inservice Education for Clinical Nurses

Park, In Hyae; Lee, Sook Ja; Lee, Jeong Hee

Abstract

Nurses are at the forefront of providing hands-on care to patients infected with HIV(Human Immunodeficiency Virus). Therefore, appropriate and sensible infection control precaution should be taken at all times. The purpose of this study is to find out nurse's learning needs about HIV/AIDS ; and nurse's willingness to perform nursing care to HIV/AIDS patients ; and the degree of following universal precautions in nursing care ; and the degree of knowledge of HIV/AIDS to provide information on the guide for the further continuing education. The respondents of this study were 280 nurses in a university hospital in Kwang-Ju city. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and analyzed by using percentages, means, Pearson's correlation, t-test, ANOVA, Duncan's grouping. The findings were as follows ; 1. The mean age of the nurses was 28.9 years, and the mean duration of their clinical experience was 6.8 years. Majority of the nurses(83.9%) had no experience in taking care of the AIDS patients. 2. The contents nurse's need to learn were showed in order such as clinical manifestations, infection control, patient care, and the mode of transmission of HIV/AIDS. 3. Even though the nurses had quite low knowledge about HIV/AIDS(mean score was 12.2 from the total of 26), they are willing to take care of the AIDS patients (mean score was 39.5 from the total of 60), and the degree of following universal precaution was also not so bad (mean score was 40.8 from the total of 50). 4. Nurses who are over 35 years old and had informal education regarding HIV/AIDS better following universal precautions. Nurses who had over 12 years of clinical experiences have more willingness to perform nursing care to the AIDS patients. Nurses who had experiences in taking care of the AIDS patients were more knowledgeable about HIV/AIDS. These findings suggest that some strategies should be develope to increase the willingness to perform the nursing care to the AIDS patients. And also continuing education program should be develope and run for the clinical nurses so that they can provide effective and appropriate nursing care to the AIDS patients.