Abstract

Objective: There is an increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases in our city, which is parallel to the increase in our country. We started to follow HIV/AIDS cases in our center last year, and we conducted a survey to evaluate the knowledge level and attitudes of physicians and nurses working in our hospital about HIV/AIDS, and the survey results were evaluated.

Methods: A questionnaire consisting of 25 questions covering the demographic characteristics of the participants and measuring the level of knowledge about HIV/AIDS was applied.

Results:120 physicians and nurses with a mean age of 35.28±8.58 participated in the survey. 62.5% were women. 55% were physicians, 45% nurses, 58.3% from internal medicine, 38.3% were surgical branches, and 3.3% were from basic sciences. All healthcare workers knew that HIV was transmitted through sexual contact and blood, and 99.2% with the use of shared injectors. 65% of the participants knew that HIV could be transmitted by breast milk, but 45.8% thought it could be transmitted by kissing. 45% of the participants, most of which were nurses, thought that the disease had no cure (p=0.001). 82.5% were aware of the increase in HIV cases in the country, and 56.7% thought that there was also an increase in our city. Although participants wanted these cases to be followed in our hospital (75.8%) and thought that prejudiced behavior was wrong (89.2%), they did not want to be included in the care of these patients (73%) due to the fear of contagion. They thought that it would be appropriate to follow them only in the Infectious Diseases clinic (60.8%).

Conclusions: Even if they are not fully aware of it, healthcare professionals approach HIV/AIDS cases with prejudice. One of the reasons for this is the lack of knowledge about the disease. Lack of knowledge brings along discrimination and stigmatization. In-service training programs are needed to overcome this situation.