NURSES: More Would Care for AIDS Patients

      Significantly more nurses today than a decade ago would be willing to care for patients with AIDS, according to a survey published in the current issue of RN. Ten years ago, 25% of nurses said they would "never refuse care" for an AIDS patient, compared with 80% today. RN Editor Marianne Mattera said, "Knowing how to protect themselves seems to be the key to the turnaround. Nearly four nurses in five now use universal precautions ... when caring for all patients, up from two out of five in 1988." When asked about AIDS-related privacy issues, more than 90% of respondents said providers have a right to know a patient's HIV status, and 70% said mandatory HIV testing does not infringe on patients' privacy rights. Forty-eight percent said patients undergoing invasive procedures have the right to know their provider's HIV status, and 62% said HIV-positive providers should be prohibited from performing such procedures. The survey was based on 743 responses from surveys mailed to 2,000 randomly selected subscribers of RN (Medical Economics release, 4/23).