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

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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. Key words: Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome(HIV/AIDS), nurse, level of knowledge, transmission routes.