Nurses' knowledge and attitudes and AIDS patients' perception of confirmation: a pilot study.

The purpose of this pilot study was to describe registered nurses' knowledge of and attitudes toward the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and people with AIDS and the AIDS patients' perceptions of confirmation in interpersonal relationships with nurses. Convenience sampling was used to obtain 11 patient and registered nurse subject pairs in a large midwestern university hospital. Nurse subjects completed the AIDS Questionnaire: Beliefs and Information, and patient subjects completed the Perceived Confirmation Scale. It was found that patients perceived a high level of confirmation in relationships with nurses and that the nurses had an average knowledge of AIDS and fairly tolerant attitudes toward people with AIDS. No significant correlations were found among nurses' knowledge, nurses' attitudes, and patients' perception of confirmation in relationships with nurses.