This study shall investigate nursing students’ attitude and perception on their educational programs. The perception of students on their training significantly correlated to the nursing care that they will offer to HIV patients during their nursing practice. In Saudi Arabia, little research studies have been demonstrated to establish the attitudes of student nurses on the kind of education and training offered. In collection of data for analysis will be through demographic and student form questionnaires. The study will involve 500 nursing students from the Saudi Nursing colleges from all study levels. The research findings shall offer insight to improve training of nurses in Saudi Arabia by determining the overall perception and attitudes on the course content in respect of HIV/AIDS.
Throughout her history, Saudi Arabia has recorded significant advancements in the field of nursing research with an aim of improving the theory and practice of nursing. Through training of nurses has received much attention, studies indicate that perceptions of practicing nursing professionals towards HIV/AIDS patients were still at its low rate (Akala, Jenkins, & World Bank, 2005). Research conducted both in Saudi and outside revealed that nurses were still not well knowledgeable about the pandemic and as such, their provision of nursing care to HIV patients was impaired. Despite that Saudi is the largest Gulf country in the Middle East, its nursing sector remains a young and fragile profession.
Perceptions of nursing students correlated strongly with their willingness to accept caring for HIV patients ( Baumann & Blythe, 2008). Therefore, it is important to structure programs to enable nursing student to develop desired perceptions to facilitate better care for HIV/AIDS patients. According to Barbe (2005), there has been a controversy and discrepancy in the nature and level of correlation between attitude and knowledge about AIDS among nursing students and the relationship between the two over their four-year program.
In this research, the review will explore the current knowledge and literature regarding the level of comfort of nursing student’s on educational program preparation for the care of people living with HIV/AIDS in Saudi Arabia. In this study, students’ overall understanding of the concept of HIV will be factored in. additionally; perceptions on AIDS, factors that influence their attitude about course content, and the effects of the scourge in the society shall be discussed (Abu-Raddad, 2010). To gain understanding of nursing education, the study will consider a number of items. They shall include their comfort with people suffering from HIV, their future preparation for nursing care for HIV patients, and significance of their knowledge in nursing care.
In a study conducted by Aydin et al. (2007), 61.3% of practicing nurses expressed anxiety about HIV patients, and approximately 63 % feared socializing with HIV (+) persons. Extensive studies indicate that nurses working and with experience anxiety while administering care to people living with HIV/AIDS. This revelation may be because of lack of sufficient knowledge by nurses about transmission of HIV/AIDS. In a separate study conducted by Aydin (2007), 73% of the nurses expressed their right to refuse to deal with AIDS patients before they underwent educational training. The findings of this study indicated that uneducated health care nurses had negative attitude towards care for people living with HIV/AIDS (Oxford Business Group, 2009) and (AL‐Jabri & Al‐Abri, 2004).
Interesting to note is that training in some nursing workers had no significant impact on change of attitude even long after the training (AL‐Jabri & Al‐Abri, 2004). In assessing levels of comfort of students about the educational and course trainings are imperative in ensuring that they are competent enough to deal with the patients ailing from HIV/AIDS. Though discomfort may be a difficult item to measure, attitude submission will serve as a tool to establish the level of their comfort. In a report released by WHO, student nurses were very knowledgeable about transmission of HIV/AIDS (International Council of Nurses/World Health Organization, 2005)
A study by Miller-Rosser (2006) established that nursing students had little knowledge on virology as well as immunology. This study results compared nursing student, medical students, and general undergraduate about their confidence regarding knowledge in HIV/AIDS. Their findings suggested that 81% of the students were less or under-confident. The research attributed these eminent results to the fact that the knowledge related to a subject causing anxiety hence making them exercise caution on being over-confident about an issue p
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