RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The knowledge about Ebola virus disease (EVD) is very crucial in the response to the recent outbreak and in order to control its spread. This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of self-instructional module (SIM) in enhancing knowledge of EVD among Nigerian students in Bengaluru, India. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A pre-experimental study design was employed, and a simple random sampling technique was used to select 60 participants. A pretest was conducted with the tool to assess the baseline knowledge of participants after which SIM was administered to all the participants in two episodes. The posttest was conducted after 7 days using the same tool to assess any gain in knowledge among the participants. Data were analyzed using SPSS at an alpha level of 0.001 and Descriptive analysis (such as percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation [SD]) as well as independent t-test was conducted. RESULTS: Findings showed that the majority of the participants (53%) were males, studying for the undergraduate degree (85%), 36 participants (60%) were in arts/social courses. More than average of the participants (67%) had spent only 1-year in India. Majority (53.3%) had average knowledge but after the administration of the SIM, majority had very good knowledge about EVD. The mean pretest knowledge score was 16.03 with an SD of 2.951 while the mean posttest knowledge score was 28.22 with SD of 3.273. The calculated t value was 21.432 (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: SIM was observed to be very effective in this study and therefore should be adopted by health personnel in order to convey health-related information to the public.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: One of the reported obstacles to the achievement of universal access to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) prevention, treatment, care, and support programs includes stigma and discrimination from health workers, particularly nurses. Since nursing students would become future practising nurses and are most likely exposed to caring for people living with HIV/AIDS (PL WHA) during their training, it is of great importance to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of student nurses toward the reduction of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive survey research design was used. A total of 150 nursing students were selected using the simple random sampling technique of fish bowl method with replacement. Data were obtained using a self-administered (33-item) validated questionnaire to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of student nurses with regard to HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination reduction strategies. Reliability of the tool was tested using Cronbach alpha (R) yielding a reliability value of 0.72. Data collected were analyzed with descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages. RESULTS: Majority (76.0%) of the respondents were females and 82.7% were married. Respondents were found to have high knowledge (94.0%) of strategies for reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination. Also, 64% had moderate discriminatory attitude, 74% engaged in low discriminatory practice, while 26% engaged in high discriminatory practice. CONCLUSIONS: Student nurses had adequate knowledge about strategies for reducing HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination; negative discriminatory attitude toward PLWHA and some form of discriminatory practices exist in participants' training schools. It is, therefore, recommended that an educational package on reduction of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination be developed and implemented for the participants.
