Turkish and American Undergraduate Students' Attitudes Toward HIV/AIDS Patients: A Comparative Study

Validation of the attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS scale in nursing students

BACKGROUND

One of the environments where people living with HIV/AIDS should feel safer is in the health care setting; however, scientific evidence has identified discriminatory behaviour on the part of health care professionals towards these people. The reduction or abolition of discriminatory practices requires, first of all, to know the attitudes of nursing students towards AIDS with tools appropriate to the socio-cultural context of the disease. The objectives of this study are to update the AIDS Attitudes Scale for Nursing Students (EASE) by adapting it to the sociocultural landscape and to analyse the reliability and structural validity of the new scale.

METHODS

The results of the questionnaires answered by 213 undergraduate nursing students from the Faculty of Health Sciences of Ceuta (University of Granada) were analysed. Reliability (test-retest, n = 33) and validity (n = 180) tests were carried out.

RESULTS

An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a four-factor model was the most parsimonious solution. Items were examined for their underlying relationships and labelled: professional practice, social integration, partner and family, and benevolent stigma. The new scale yielded a McDonald's Omega coefficient (ω) of 0.893. Convergent validity was established for average variance extracted per factor greater than 0.5 and divergent validity when the variance retained by each factor is greater than the variance shared between them (average variance extracted per factor > ϕ2).

CONCLUSIONS

The new scale is a psychometrically sound instrument for assessing attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS in nursing students.

Approaching Sexually Transmitted Infections in a Nursing Undergraduate Curriculum

OBJECTIVE

To identify the approach to sexually transmitted infections in the undergraduate nursing course at a federal university in southern Brazil.

METHOD

Socio-historical research with a qualitative approach, and use of oral and documentary sources. Thirteen professors participated. Data collection took place between December 2018 and April 2019. Data analysis was thematic.

RESULTS

Three categories of analysis emerged: the teaching of sexually transmitted infections based on Brazilian public policies; sexually transmitted infections and their teaching strategy in an undergraduate nursing course; and the trajectory of approach to sexually transmitted infections in an undergraduate nursing course. The undergraduate course is based on public health and education policies, and the subject "Sexually Transmitted Infections" was created in the course at the end of the 1970s. The content is not mandatory, being associated with the area of public health and evidenced in the fields of practice and educational activities.

CONCLUSION

The teaching of sexually transmitted infections has been in line with public health and education policies. It gains a greater teaching focus with the emergence of AIDS.

Effect of peer education model on nursing students' knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS

OBJECTIVES

This research is an intervention study designed as a single group pre-test post-test model without control group in order to examine the effect of education provided to nursing students based on peer education model on HIV/AIDS knowledge level and attitude.

DESIGN, METHODS, SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS

The research was carried out at Nursing Department of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University. Sample of the study consisted of second year nursing students who agreed to participate in the study and enrolled Internal Medicine Nursing course for the first time (n = 88). In the first stage of the study, nine peer mentors were selected and a total of 12 h of training were given to them by the researchers. In the second stage, peer mentors provided a total of 12 h of training to nine peer students groups. All groups were created by simple randomization on the "research randomizer" website. Demographics questionnaire, AIDS knowledge scale and AIDS attitude scale were used to collect the data. Data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Pearson Chi-square test, paired sample t-Test, Wilcoxon test and Spearman correlation test.

RESULTS

It was determined that peer education provided a statistically significant increase in AIDS knowledge scale score in peer students (pretest x¯=10.32 ± 3.59, posttest x¯=19.69 ± 1.51) (p < 0.001). In addition, peer education was found to provide a statistically significant increase in AIDS attitude scale score in peer students (pretest x¯=56.64 ± 8.36, posttest x¯=72.95 ± 7.02) (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

It has been determined that peer education method is an effective method in increasing HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS in nursing students. Therefore, it is recommended to include peer education model in nursing educations regarding HIV/AIDS.

Nursing students' satisfaction with narrative photography as a method to develop empathy towards people with Hiv: A mixed-design study

BACKGROUND

A major concern for people living with HIV during their lifetime is stigma and discrimination. It is therefore crucial to improve new generations of nurses' empathetic attitude towards these patients to eliminate fear and reduce discrimination using new educational interventions.

OBJECTIVE

To analyze nursing students' satisfaction with narrative photography as a method to develop empathy towards people living with HIV.

DESIGN

Concurrent mixed-method design.

PARTICIPANTS

Seventeen first-year nursing students from a public university in Barcelona, Spain.

METHODS

A 32-item questionnaire was administered at the end of the narrative photography training activity to determine nursing students' satisfaction with the methodology. Sociodemographic, attitudinal, skills, and satisfaction data were collected. Qualitative data were collected using a reflective open-ended question.

RESULTS

Of the participants, 82.4% stated that narrative photography helped them to develop reflective thinking and perceive how people living with HIV may feel. Further, 88.2% said that the new method helped them to eliminate some of their prejudices about HIV/AIDS, consider different points of view, understand the importance of providing humanized care, and identify discriminatory behaviors when caring for people living with HIV. Finally, 70.6% stated that narrative photography taught them more than traditional lectures.

CONCLUSIONS

Nursing students' satisfaction with narrative photography as a teaching strategy is very high; as a result, empathy is advanced in an academic and professional way during the nursing degree. However, more research is needed to demonstrate its efficacy in different scenarios.