Assessment of the Level of Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice with Regard to Care of People Living with HIV/AIDS among Nursing and Midwifery Students in Fako, Cameroon
Due to the chronic shortage of health personnel, nurses and midwives now
play a fundamental role in the care and treatment of people living with HIV/
AIDS (PLHIV) in Cameroon. This study was therefore designed to assess the
level of knowledge, attitude and practice with regard to care of PLHIV among
nursing and midwifery students in Fako division of Cameroon. A survey was
performed between May and July 2015, among 227 nursing and midwifery
students (in their second to final year of study), selected from 8 government
accredited training institutions in Fako division of Cameroon. An anonymous
self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The
Pearson’s chi-square test, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses
adjusting for possible confounders were all performed as part of the statistical
analyses. The cutoff of statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05. Nursing
and midwifery students had a moderate level of HIV/AIDS knowledge
(average score of 7.02 on a scale of 11). Attitude towards PLHIV was generally
positive (68.7%) but there were some misconceptions and prejudice about
PLHIV, with considerable stigmatization (31.3%), unwillingness to share a
room with someone infected with HIV (27.7%), and unwillingness to work on
PLHIV (23.8%). Good HIV/AIDS knowledge was observed to be the sole independent
predictor (p = 0.004) of positive attitude towards PLHIV. Fur-thermore the confidence of the respondents regarding care of PLHIV was
generally moderate. Our results suggest the need for the development of a
more appropriate education program in nursing and midwifery institutions in
Fako division to reduce the discrepancies between the general knowledge, attitude
and practice regarding care of PLHIV.
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