South African and Swedish registered nurses' experience of caring for HIV-positive patients

Abstract: It could be said that the most stigmatising disease of the 21st century is the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (“HIV”). Unfortunately, the infection is occasionally associated with feelings of shame and fear among both patients and healthcare professionals. An estimated 33 million people are living with the virus at the present time and of these, 5.7 million are in South Africa. Whilst the number in Sweden is fairly low, it is on the increase. This study aimed to illuminate the experience of South African and Swedish registered nurses of caring for HIV-positive patients. A purposeful sample consisting of three South African and three Swedish registered nurses were interviewed using a ‘focused interview’ technique. This technique advocates an overarching aim of promoting free narration in order to capture the essence of an experience – the experience of nurses caring for HIV-positive patients. The six interviews were transcribed and the text was analysed and inspired by the hermeneutic phenomenological method as described by Van Manen (1997). An overarching theme ‘The process of caring for HIV-positive patients’ revealing our six sub-themes and showing how these nurses have gone from fear and frustration to hope and satisfaction. The findings from this study indicate that similarities and differences while caring for HIV-positive patients exist between when comparing industrialised countries and undeveloped countries. Knowledge and experience were shown to be the most important factors in enabling quality care for this patient group.