Nurses' level of knowledge on the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), behavior and practices: A survey from Turkish Society

Abstract

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a syndrome for which no current treatment or 
prophylactic vaccine exists. It is caused by a virus called the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). 
Protection against this disease can be provided through a good understanding of the transmission 
routes. This study was conducted to determine nurses’ level of knowledge on the HIV/AIDS disease. 
This study was performed as a descriptive trial designed to determine nurses’ level of knowledge on the 
HIV/AIDS disease in a hospital located at the center of Erzurum, a city with a population of 985,389 in 
the east of Turkey. A total of 170 nurses participated in the study. A form on the socio-demographic 
characteristics and a survey form related to the transmission routes for HIV/AIDS, the sources of 
infection and the protective measures were used to collect the study data. Percentage distributions 
were used for data assessment. Based on the survey, results obtained from 170 nurses, of whom 45.3% 
were between 26 and 33 years of age (n:77), 170 nurses (100%) indicated that HIV/AIDS was transmitted 
through blood with high rates of transmission also through dentist, barber and hairdresser practices 
and circumcision tools; 97.6 and 99.4% of the nurses indicated that HIV can be found in the vaginal fluid 
and semen, respectively, while 91.2% of the nurses indicated that use of a condom/diaphragm was an 
effective measure for protection against HIV/AIDS. Post-graduate in-service training should be 
organized to fulfill the requirement for information that the nurses have.