ABSTRACT
Pregnant women living with HIV infection require ongoing health care services as they are potentially at increased risk of developing opportunistic infections and metabolic disorders. The aim of the study was to evaluate knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses towards the care of HIV positive pregnant women in state hospitals in Ika Local Government Area, Delta State. A descriptive cross sectional research design was used in the study, with a total number of 214 copies of well-structured questionnaire to evaluate the knowledge of nurses from six different government hospitals. The questionnaire was divided into four parts; namely, socio-demographic data, knowledge of nurses towards the care of HIV positive pregnant mothers, attitude towards the care of HIV positive pregnant mothers and the practice of the respondents towards the care of HIV positive mothers. Quantitative data obtained from the correctly and completely returned 214 copies of the questionnaire were subjected to analysis and presented as frequency, simple percentages, mean and standard deviation and Chi-square analysis (at 0.05 level of significance) results was used for the hypotheses testing. The outcome of the study showed that Nurses in Ika Local Government Area, Delta State had good knowledge, positive attitude and good practice towards the care of pregnant women with HIV. As regards to knowledge, 81% of nurses showed high level of knowledge towards the care of pregnant women with HIV. Exactly 13% possessed moderate level knowledge and about 6% showed poor or low level knowledge towards the care of pregnant women with HIV. Regarding attitude, majority of the Nurses (91.50%) had positive attitude on prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV while (8.50%) had negative attitude. As regards practice, Nurses in Ika Local Government Area had good practice (93%) and just 7% bad practice towards the care of HIV positive women respectively. Analysis of hypothesized relationships revealed that there was no significant (P > 0.05) association between attitude and age of Nurses in the care of HIV positive women; also, the study recorded no significant association between the marital status of Nurses and the level of knowledge of care of HIV positive women. Again, the study found that there was no significant (P > 0.5) association between the attitude and years of practice of Nurses in care of HIV positive women. The finding of the present study revealed that general knowledge of Nurses towards care of HIV positive women in Ika LGA, Delta State was good. Also, knowledge on the use of antiretroviral drugs and avoidance of breastfeeding as measures for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV was good. In conclusion, sufficient knowledge, positive attitudes and good practices are needed in the care of pregnant women with HIV, as it will enhance regular visit to the clinic for proper care and follow up.
