Student nurses' perceptions of "safe sex"

Abstract

Practising "safe sex" implies that each person should be faithful to one single sexual partner and that condoms should be used regularly. Accidental findings of interviews conducted among student nurses of the Northern Province during 1999, revealed that these student nurses regarded themselves to practising safe sex because 95,7% of them had single sex partners, and were thus protected from contracting HIV/AIDS because they were not promiscuous, according to their perceptions. However, at least 69,9% knew that their sexual partners were either married or had sexual relations with other women as well. Despite this knowledge the majority of student nurses regarded themselves as being safe from contracting HIV/AIDS because they were "faithful" to single sex partners, irrespective of their male partners' known promiscuities. Furthermore, the student nurses did not request their male sex partners to use condoms, because they were not promiscuous (according to their perceptions) and because the use of condoms was reportedly culturally unacceptable. On the basis of the research findings obtained from conducting interviews with 93 student nurses in the Northern Province, the success of the HIV/AIDS health education efforts in this area needs to be seriously re-evaluated and redesigned. Failure to use a condom at each occasion could mean executing a death sentence on oneself and/or on one's sex partner(s).