An investigation into nurses' anxiety when dealing with HIV patients

Abstract

The aim of the study was to test the hypothesis developed by the author which states that most of the variation in nurses' anxiety when dealing with HIV/AIDS patients can be explained by the combination of the variables Knowledge on HIV, Judgement of Risk, Homophobia, Death Anxiety and Perceived Social Support. 72 nurses representing two state hospitals and one private hospital volunteered to participate in the study, and completed questionnaires. Contrary to the findings in the literature study, the nurses in the sample were not found to be reluctant or anxious when caring for HIV/AIDS patients. A multiple regression analysis revealed that the hypothesis is confirmed, that the independent variables explain some variation (R = 0.649) in the dependent variable to a significant degree. There are indications that uninvestigated variables are however also at play, and should be considered for future research.