What Do Medical Students Think About HIV/AIDS? Student thoughts on HIV / AIDS

Abstract

Objective: With this study, we wanted to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS and to improve the attitudes and behaviors of physician candidates towards HIV/AIDS patients. For this reason, we first measured the knowledge levels of the students. Raising awareness of doctor candidates is a strategic move to protect against HIV / AIDS and to make these patients benefit from health services without any problem. Methods: Using a questionnaire, we measured HIV/AIDS knowledge levels of students (960) who were continuing their education in the medical school of Atatürk University. The questionnaire consisted of five parts: demographic characteristics, general information, ways of transmission, ways of protection, attitudes, and behaviors. Ethics committee permission was obtained for the study and the survey data were analyzed in SPSS 20 package program. Results: We noticed that physician candidates, especially ethical issues, were confused in some questions. The results were not enough for medical school. 960 volunteers participated in the study, of which 532 (55.4%) were women and 428 (44.6%) were men. The students knew that an HIV carrier and a patient diagnosed with AIDS are different from each other (78.2%). They said that HIV is a virus that weakens the immune system (86%) and AIDS has no radical treatment (97.4%). However, students' answers about pregnant women and nursing mothers were discrepancy. Conclusion: We saw that young people need education on HIV/AIDS. For this reason, a training seminar was given by the academicians at Atatürk University on World AIDS Day. The students who participated in our study and education stated that they were not afraid of the patients with AIDS and learned the subject. We expect that this training will improve the approach of doctor candidates to the patient and that the provision of training in all faculties will reduce the increase in HIV / AIDS.

Keywords

• HIV/AIDS
• Students
• Education
• Medical Faculty
• Turkey

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