The impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on hospital nurses in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa: nurses' perspectives and implications for health policy.

During a stay in South Africa in 2002-2003, we learned that public sector nurses dealt with serious community and workplace impacts from the HIV/AIDS epidemic; and were reluctant to report occupational exposures to HIV or take a short-course of antiretroviral post-exposure prophylaxis to prevent HIV infection. In May 2003, in South Africa's KwaZulu Natal province, we explored perspectives of 34 public hospital nurses in nine group interviews on workplace safety; the impact of HIV/AIDS on nurses' work environments; and, hospital and government policy. The information they provided illustrates that the views of nurses are vitally important to policy-making. We conclude that seeking nurses' views and involving them in policy processes could contribute to worker health, to addressing the dramatic shortage of nurses, recently identified as the largest threat to providing HIV/AIDS treatment in sub-Saharan Africa, and to improving quality of care.