study on knowledge and attitude of internal and infectious wards nurses toward aids

study on knowledge and attitude of internal and infectious wards nurses toward aids     zeighami mohammadi sh ٭ [1] , zeinali e [2]     received: august 27, 2011 accepted: october 7, 2011     abstract   background & aims : nurse's knowledge and attitudes related to aids is important as it affects their behavior , willingness to care, and quality of care . the aim of this study was to determine knowledge and attitudes of internal and infectious wards nurses toward aids in tehran, 2009.   materials & methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 180 internal and infectious wards nurses from four selected hospitals of tehran and shahid beheshti university of medical sciences . through census sampling method and 165 nurses participated in this study. data were collected through self administered questionnaire. the instruments used included demographic data form, aids knowledge questionnaire, and aids attitude scale. the data were analyzed by spss software and using descriptive statistics, t-test, anova and coefficient pearson correlation.   results : 57.6% nurses had moderate knowledge on aids . a significant statistical different was found between the mean score of knowledge related to aids with education level (p=0.009), capacity (p=0.048), shift work (0.005), and received hiv related training (0.042). the mean score of attitudes toward aids was 0.79±0.86 and nurses had low empathy attitude. there were not statistically significant association between knowledge related to aids with attitudes toward aids (p=0.598).   conclusion : regarding the results of this study seems that nurses need more hiv related training to improve their knowledge and attitudes related to aids, aids-related stigma, ethical issues related to hiv treatment in order to improve quality of aids patients care.   keywords : knowledge, attitude, aids, internal, infectious, nurses     address : faculty of nursing and midwifery, islamic azad university, karaj branch, karaj, iran   tel : (+98) 9125680679   email: [email protected]   [1] instructor of nursing, faculty of nursing and midwifery, islamic azad university, karaj branch, karaj, iran (corresponding author)  [2] specialist of infectious disease, social security, alborz hospital, karaj, iran