Attitude of nurses in a burn unit to hiv/aids burn patients. 2005

P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
Burns and Plastic Surgery Unit, Department of Surgery, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have constituted a major challenge and concern worldwide. This is especially true among health workers who have to take care of such patients. This paper is aimed at studying the attitude to HIV/AID burn patients of nurses working in a burn unit. The work was carried out at the burns unit of the National Orthopaedics Hospital in Enugu, Nigeria. In a cross-sectional descriptive study, 125 questionnaires were distributed among nurses working in the burn unit. All the 120 nurses who responded were aware of HIV/AIDS: 80.8% of them believed that the prevalence was high, 93.3% that they could be infected while taking care of the patients, 91.5% that all burn patients should be screened for HIV, and 41.4% that their knowledge of the patients' HIV status would affect their professional duty to them; 31.1% would not want to dress the wounds of known HIV/AIDS burn patients. We conclude that there is a need to educate nurses and indeed all health care workers on adherence to universal precaution rather than routine screening for HIV of all burn patients as knowledge of the patients' HIV status may lead to discrimination against them.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries

Related Publications

P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
May 2004, Applied nursing research : ANR,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
August 2006, The American journal of nursing,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
March 1997, Journal of the Indian Medical Association,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
May 1990, Fag tidsskriftet sykepleien,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
September 1997, Soins; la revue de reference infirmiere,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
December 2001, The Nursing journal of India,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
February 1990, TVZ : het vakblad voor de verpleging,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
April 2006, African journal of reproductive health,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
January 1987, The Journal of burn care & rehabilitation,
P B Olaitan, and J O Olaitan, and M D Dairo, and I S Ogbonnaya
January 2010, AIDS patient care and STDs,
Copied contents to your clipboard!