Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-swr86 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-24T05:27:42.806Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Psychiatric hospital staff knowledge and attitudes towards AIDS, and the impact of an in-house education seminar

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Ronan J McIvor  and
Rory K Shelley
Ronan J McIvor
Affiliation:
St. John of God Hospital, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A self-administered questionnaire assessing general knowledge about AIDS, including modes of transmission, methods of prevention and attitudes to the disease, was completed by staff in a psychiatric hospital after an AIDS education seminar. The data were used to assess staff knowledge of and attitudes to AIDS, and to assess the usefulness of the seminar in changing these. Responses to individual questionnaire items were examined for associations with age, sex, job description and attendance at the seminar.

Eighty-six staff members returned questionnaires, a response rate of 39%. The results showed that levels of knowledge concerning AIDS transmission and prevention were high. A significantly greater proportion of seminar attenders were aware that needles should not be recapped after taking blood samples, but when this and other knowledge and attitude responses were corrected to allow for the higher proportion of non-medical staff among the non-attenders, there were no significant differences between attenders and non-attenders.

These results suggest that an omnibus AIDS education seminar may not produce a worthwhile improvement in staff knowledge of or attitudes to AIDS.

Keywords

Acquired Immune Deficiency SyndromeEducationKnowledgeAttitudes
Type
Practice Reviews
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , May 1992 , pp. 67 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Fenton, TW. AIDS related psychiatric disorder. Br J Psychiatry 1987; 151: 579–588.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
2.Goldmeier, D, Granville-Grossman, K. The clinical psychiatry of human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) infection. In: Granville-Grossman, K, editor. Recent advances in clinical psychiatry 6. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone, 1988: 1–49.Google Scholar
3.Curran, JW. The epidemiology and prevention of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Ann Intern Med 1985; 103: 657–662.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Mills, S, Campbell, MJ, Waters, WE. Knowledge of AIDS and the DHSS advertisement campaign. BMJ 1986; 293: 1089–1090.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
5.Catalan, J, Massimo, R, Thompson, C. HIV disease and psychiatric practice Psychiatric Bulletin 1989; 13: 316–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Wertz, DC, Sorenson, JR, Liebling, L, Kessler, L, Heeren, TC. Knowledge and attitudes of AIDS health care providers before and after education programmes. Public Health Reports 1987 05-June; 102 (3): 249–254.Google Scholar
7.Mantel, N, Haenszel, W. Statistical aspects of the analysis of data from retrospective studies of disease. J Natl Cancer Inst 1959; 22: 719–48.Google ScholarPubMed
8.O'Donnell, L, O'Donnell, CR. Hospital workers and AIDS: effect of inservice education on knowledge and perceived risks and stresses. NY State J Med 1987; 87: 278–280.Google ScholarPubMed
9.Perry, C, Killan, J, Telch, M. Modifying smoking behaviour of teenagers: a school based intervention. Am J Public Health 1980; 70: 722–725.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
10.Ware, A, Bigelow, B, Sleet, D. Safety belt use at the work site. Corporate Commentry 1984; 1: 16–27.Google Scholar
11.Gordin, F, Levine, L, Willoughby, A, Gurel, L, Neill, K. Hospital workers' knowledge, behaviour, and attitudes towards AIDS. Abstract (communication 213: 524e) in Programme of the International Conference on AIDS, Paris, France, 1986. Paris: Voyage Conseil, 1986.Google Scholar