Abstract

Objective: Health care personnel working at the emergency rooms, laboratories, operating rooms and intensive care units (ICU) are at increased risk of being exposed to HIV/AIDS and other infectious agents. Adequate knowledge of health care workers and an approach without prejudice is important in providing the appropriate treatment to these patients. In the present study, we aimed to conduct a questionnaire to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of health care workers of ICU on HIV/AIDS and determine the content of the in-service education depending on the results obtained.

Methods: A questionnaire was applied to the participants to measure their knowledge on HIV/AIDS and to assess their attitudes towards patients.

Results: A total of 46 health care workers in ICU out of which 30 (65%) were female participated in the study. For the question ”which samples are accepted as infectious in HIV/AIDS”, vaginal secretion (83%) and semen (76%) were the highest responses of the participants.

Conclusions: As well as improving medical knowledge, trainings that would provide positive attitudes towards HIV/AIDS patients should be involved in the education of health care professionals. The results of our study provided clues about the content of education that will be given to health care professionals. We suggest that providing knowledge about HIV/AIDS, and emphasizing the importance of the disease will be beneficial in the diagnosis, treatment and follow up of these patients.

Cite this article as: İnci A, Altan Y, Biçer İG, Derbent A, Salihoğlu S. [Knowledge level about HIV/AIDS among health care workers at intensive care unit]. Klimik Derg. 2018; 31(2): 110-4. Turkish.