Nurses' and physicians' attitudes towards aids in Jordan

Abstract EN

Objective : to describe nurses' and physicians' attitudes towards AIDS patients in Jordan.

Methods : data were collected using AIDS Attitude Scale (AAS), which was translated to Arabic and was distributed to nurses and physicians working at six equally divided hospitals from the Royal Medical Services and the Ministry of Health.

They were selected conveniently according to their accessibility to the researcher.

A sample of 340 nurses and physicians completed the scale.

Results : the majority of the sample were females n = 237 (69.7 %).

The age of the participants ranged from 20-59 years.

Nurses were 267 (78.5 %) while physicians were 73 (21.5 %).

The experience of the participants ranged from 1-29 years and 75.9 % had previous knowledge about AIDS.

The results revealed a significant difference between males' and females' attitudes regarding the three factors of AIDS attitude ; proximity to people with AIDS (p < .001), AIDS as a moral issue (p < .001) and social welfare regarding AIDS (p < .001).

There was also a significant difference between nurses' and physicians' attitudes regarding specialization and their previous knowledge about AIDS.

However, the results indicated no significant difference in attitude between nurses and physicians in relation to their age or experience.

Conclusion : the study showed that nurses in Jordan have negative attitudes towards AIDS patients and less knowledge about the disease.

Physicians on the other hand showed better orientation and more positive attitudes towards AIDS patients.