ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Despite worldwide advances in HIV care and growing scientific knowledge about HIV, stigma and prejudice continue to hinder people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) from seeking treatment and care. HIV-related stigma among healthcare workers in Indonesia has been investigated and measured in only a few empirical studies. PURPOSE: This study was developed to identify factors related to holding stigmatizing attitudes toward PLWHA among professional healthcare providers in Indonesia. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey approach using convenience and snowball sampling techniques was used. Data were collected in February and March 2022. All of the participants were healthcare workers in Indonesia who had completed an online survey that collected demographic data and measured HIV-related stigma, fear of HIV transmission, and HIV-related knowledge. Bivariate analysis and multiple linear regression were used to investigate the association between the independent and dependent variables. RESULTS: The study enrolled 252 participants, including eight physicians (3.2%), 200 nurses (79.4%), and 44 midwives (17.5%). Over two thirds of the participants (65.1%) had no formal HIV training. Stigmatizing attitudes were associated with lower levels of HIV knowledge ( B = -0.480, p < .01), fear of becoming infected with the HIV virus ( B = 0.354, p < .05), and type of HIV care setting ( B = -2.913, p < .05). Of the three participant categories, physicians had the highest levels of both HIV knowledge and PLWHA-related stigma. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate many healthcare workers in Indonesia receive limited formal training on HIV, have low levels of HIV knowledge, and fear HIV transmission. Therefore, providing comprehensive and up-to-date education about HIV for health workers and proper personal protective equipment should be incorporated into programs aimed at reducing stigmatizing attitudes against patients with HIV among healthcare workers in Indonesia.
ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Throughout the HIV pandemic, nurses have contributed to or led approaches to understanding the effects of HIV disease at individual and societal levels. Nurses have advocated for socially just care for more than a century, and our efforts have created a foundation on which to further build the state of HIV nursing science with sexual orientation and gender identity/expression (SOGI) Peoples. Nurses have also participated in the development of approaches to manage HIV disease for and in collaboration with populations directly affected by the disease. Our inclusive approach was guided by an international human rights legal framework to review the state of nursing science in HIV with SOGI Peoples. We identified articles that provide practice guidance (n = 44) and interventions (n = 26) to address the health concerns of SOGI Peoples and our communities. Practice guidance articles were categorized by SOGI group: SOGI People collectively, bisexual, transgender, cisgender lesbian, women who have sex with women, cisgender gay men, and men who have sex with men. Interventions were categorized by societal level (i.e., individual, family, and structural). Our review revealed opportunities for future HIV nursing science and practices that are inclusive of SOGI Peoples. Through integrated collaborative efforts, nurses can help SOGI communities achieve optimal health outcomes that are based on dignity and respect for human rights.
