An investigation of junior college nursing students' intentions to care for HIV-positive patients

Objective: To explore junior college nursing students' knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and nursing care abilities related to caring for HIV-positive patients and to determine the extent to which these variables influence their caregiving intentions. Materials and Methods: Two junior nursing colleges were randomly selected. Students from nine classes were asked to voluntarily complete a structured questionnaire. Results: Most of these nursing students lacked sufficient knowledge about HIV. In general, participants expressed positive attitudes toward caring for patients who are HIV positive. Subjective norms about caring for HIV-positive patients tended to be negative, but ratings of nursing care abilities were generally positive. Participants also expressed slightly positive intentions to care for patients who are HIV positive. In addition, attitudes, subjective norms, and nursing care abilities were significantly correlated with intentions. The use of a stepwise regression revealed that knowledge, attitudes, subjective norms, and nursing care abilities accounted for 33% of the variance in intentions. However, only attitudes, subjective norms and nursing care abilities were significant predictors of intentions. Conclusions: Nursing educators can focus on changing students' attitudes, subjective norms, and nursing care abilities to improve their intentions to care for HIV-positive patients.