Nurses play key roles in educating patients about ART adherence and side effects, but they should also educate patients about CD4 and viral-load test results and about the dangers of using traditional medicines and alcohol with ART. Shorter waiting times at clinics could make ART patients' lives more manageable.

Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) are supplied free of charge in Botswana. Lifelong adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is vital to improve the patient's state of well-being and to prevent the development of strains of the human immunodefi ciency virus (HIV) that are resistant to ART. Persons with ART-resistant strains of HIV can spread these to other people, requiring more expensive ART with more severe side-effects and poorer health outcomes. The purpose of this exploratory, descriptive, qualitative study was to determine nurses' perspectives on Botswana patients' anti-retroviral therapy (ART) adherence, and to identify factors which could promote or hinder ART adherence. Four ART sites were randomly selected and all 16 nurses providing ART services at these sites participated in semi-structured interviews. These nurses indicated that patients' ART adherence was infl uenced by service-related and patient-related factors. Servicerelated factors included the inaccessibility of ART clinics, limited clinic hours, health workers' inability to communicate in patients' local languages, long waiting times at clinics and delays in being informed about their CD4 and viral load results. Nurses could not trace defaulters nor contact them by phone, and also had to work night shifts, disrupting nurse-patient relationships. Patient-related factors included patients' lack of education, inability to understand the signifi cance of CD4 and viral load results, fi nancial hardships, non-disclosure and non-acceptance of their HIV positive status, alcohol abuse, the utilisation of traditional medicines and side effects of ART. The challenges of lifelong ART adherence are multifaceted involving both patient-related and servicerelated factors. Supplying free ARVs does not ensure high levels of ART adherence. OPSOMMINGAnti-retrovirale middels (ARMs) word gratis verskaf in Botswana. Lewenslange getroue nakoming van ARM voorskrifte is noodsaaklik om die pasiënt se algehele staat van welsyn te verbeter en om die ontwikkeling te voorkom van stamme van die menslike immuun-gebrek virus (MIV) wat weerstand bied teen anti-retrovirale behandeling (ARB). Persone met ARB-weerstandbiedende MIV stamme kan dit versprei na ander mense toe, wat duurder ARB vereis met swakker gesondheidsuitkomste. Die doel van hierdie verkennende, beskrywende, kwalitatiewe studie was om te bepaal wat verpleegkundiges se sienings is oor pasiënte in Botswana se nakoming van ARB, en om faktore te identifi seer wat die ARB-nakoming kan bevorder of benadeel. Vier ARB terreine was ewekansig gekies en al 16 verpleegkundiges wat ARB dienste by die terreine verskaf, het deelgeneem aan semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude. Hierdie verleegkundiges het aangedui dat pasiënte se ARB handhawing beïnvloed word deur diens-verwante en pasiënt-verwante faktore. Diens-verwante faktore behels die ontoeganklikheid van ARB klinieke, beperkte kliniekure, gesondheidswerkers se onvermoë om in pasiënte se plaaslike tale te kommunikeer, lang wagtye by klinieke en vertragings om ingelig te wo...