"Nothing can be changed if the people don’t change" : Costa Rican registered nurses’ views and experiences of caring for patients with dengue fever

Sammanfattning: Dengue fever has increased to the point where it has become a major international public health and economical problem, mainly in urban and semi-urban areas in tropical and subtropical regions. Worldwide 2,5 billion people live in regions where dengue can be transmitted and approximately 100 million people get infected yearly. In 2002 there was a great outbreak in Latin America, and Costa Rica was in the top three regarding reported cases. At the time of writing, reports show that cases of dengue are currently low in Costa Rica. Although the figures vary, dengue remains a public health problem. This study aimed to describe Costa Rican registered nurses’ views and experiences of caring for patients with dengue fever. Data were collected with semi-structured interviews and conducted with eight registered nurses from Costa Rica, and analysed with qualitative content analysis method with search for similarities and differences which later were categorized. The result was divided into five categories; the conception about dengue fever, caring, patient education, prevention and the future. The result showed a similar perception of the disease and was described as terrible, causing a lot of suffering for the patient, as well as a burden on the health care, that requires large financial resources. To control dengue and suppress the proliferation it is important to have different preventive means and to educate people to achieve a change of the mindset.