Människan bakom sjukdomen : En litteraturöversikt om vårdpersonalens attityder gentemot personer med HIV/AIDS

Sammanfattning: Background: HIV/AIDS has existed officially for more than 35 years and is now seen as a global epidemic. The disease has claimed many victims and there is no indication showing decrease of the mortality rate. The disease is currently incurable, but antiretroviral drugs have good effect at slowing down the process. The persons who live with the disease are exposed to stigma and, sometimes, negative attitudes. The negative attitudes could affect the person’s willingness carry through the test. It might also lead to an unequal care. Aim: To describe the nursing staff’s attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and the people who live with HIV/AIDS. Method: A literature review, based on two qualitative articles and eight quantitative articles. The articles were collected from the databases CINAHL complete and PubMed with the chosen keywords. Results: The result contained of three categories: Nursing staff’s attitudes, Possible causes for negative and positive attitudes and Possible consequences of negative attitudes. The first category was about the attitudes from nursing staff towards HIV/AIDS and towards people who live with the disease. The second category was about possible causes for the negative attitudes and the last category was about the consequences of the negative attitudes. Discussions: The discussions were classified into two main sections, Possible consequences of negative attitudes and How the suffering appears, which included one minor section: How the caregiver can ease the suffering.  The sections were discussed using the concept of suffering according to Katie Eriksson, especially the suffering related to health care. The first section deals with how consequences of negative attitudes among the nursing staff affect the patients. The second section describes how suffering related to the care emerges in the patient due to the negative attitudes. The final, minor section shows examples of how the caregiver can mitigate the suffering.