Personal and social determinants of rural nurses' willingness to care for persons with AIDS

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the individual and social determinants of rural nurses' willingness to care for people with AIDS (PWAs). Willingness to care was viewed as a function of nurses' personal attitudes about AIDS care and PWAs; the influence of normative (significant others), comparative (the nursing profession), and generalized (the rural community) reference group norms on these attitudes; and how much importance respondents placed on membership in these reference groups. Responses to a mailed questionnaire from 615 rural nurses were analyzed. Individual determinants were nurses' feelings of preparedness and favorable attitudes about their personal safety when administering care. Social determinants were the degree of upset of respondents' significant others about their caring for AIDS patients and favorable attitudes of the respondents about professional and social concerns related to AIDS.

How Caring for Persons with HIV/AIDS Affects Rural Nurses

“…Rural nurses have 312 I. L. MULLINS expressed that they need to know more about AIDS and the care of PWAs (D'Augelli, 1989;Koch et al, 1991;Preston et al, 2000;. Lacking formal education about HIV/AIDS (Tessaro & Highriter, 1995) and enough information to protect them from HIV in the workplace make nurses vulnerable.…”

“…As a result, the nurse would not divulge that he or she provided nursing care to PWAs . Nurses are fearful that they could bring HIV home to their own children and families or that they might not be able to keep themselves from acquiring HIV in the workplace Preston et al, 2000) and die as a result (Baylor & McDaniel, 1996). In contrast, the positive effect of family support occurred when nurses who were willing to care for PWAs had significant others who were supportive .…”

“…Other information comes from survey data collected in the 1980s and 1990s using instruments designed to measure willingness to provide care for PWAs, attitudes about PWAs, the use of personal protective equipment, and homophobia (Koch, Preston, Young, & Wang, 1991;O'Sullivan, Preston, & Forti, 2000;Preston, Forti, Kassab, & Koch, 2000). A recent review of health care literature revealed that research literature lacks studies reporting actual caregiving experiences of rural nurses who provide nursing care for PWAs.…”

Are employees more committed and willing to accept critical assignments during a crisis? A study of organizational commitment, professional commitment and willingness to care during the SARS outbreak in Taiwan

“…Studies showed that most nurses were willing to care for HIV/AIDS patients, and the predictors were professional education, spirituality and perceived social support, and death anxiety, feelings to preparedness and personal safety, personal attitude to nursing profession (Preston, Fortie, Kassab and Koch 2000;Sherman 2007). In sum, the predictors were mostly about the nurses' attitudes toward their organizations and profession.…”

Factors Associated with Religious Congregation Members’ Support to People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kumasi, Ghana

“…However, little is known about the factors that facilitate individual acts of support to people with HIV/ AIDS. Although studies in U.S. have focused on determinants of health care providers' and caregivers' willingness to care for family members with HIV/AIDS (Preston, Forti, Kassab, & Koch, 2000;Turner, Pearlin, & Mullan, 1998), our literature review did not identify any studies that investigated the factors associated community members' support to people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world. These factors may include individual and community-level characteristics, such as the presence of leaders encouraging support to persons affected by HIV/AIDS (Figueroa, Kincaid, Rani, & Lewis, 2002).…”