Nursing students’ and Nurses’ Knowledge of and Attitudes toward AIDS and Their Willingness to Care for AIDS Patients

C.F. Kuo

1993 Vol.9 NO.1

Correspondence Author：

Abstract：

Experts of the 8th International Congress on AIDS held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in May 1992 estimated a world total of 10 to 12 million persons infected by AIDS viruses. The number of AIDS-infected persons in Taiwan, according to the report of the Department of Health, was 407 as of 31 December 1992, and the number of heterosexual patients was also increasing. The estimate of Dr James Chin, Chief of Global AIDS program, put the number of persons infected with AIDS viruses in the Taiwan area at above 3,000. Dr H.T. Lin, Director of the Taipei VD Center, estimates that by 1997, the number of AIDS carriers in Taiwan would exceed 10,000, with an additional 30,000 to 50,000 potential carriers. Thus, the AIDS carriers and AIDS patients will soon become a serious challenge to medical care workers. To care for AIDS patients requires not only enormous medical care costs, the discrimination and prejudice that some people hold against AIDS as a consequence of the mass media’s frequent reportings on AIDS can also be a serious barrier. Medical care personnel even insist that they have the right to decide whether or not to care for AIDS patients.