Caring for patients with AIDS: A nursing and other support service perspective

ISBN O 86981 572 5

Aids is one of the most devastating health problems that has ever faced the world. All members of the health and social services professions as well as all citizens have a duty to help contain its spread. The Rectorate of this University assisted the Department of Nursing Science at the University of South Africa to initiate its ongoing contribution to combating Aids, by sponsoring a Symposium on Aids, and by financing the visit of an internationally known keynote speaker from overseas.

The Symposium is but the beginning of the work of nurses in the campaign against AIDS. It was designed to alert nurses to their responsibilities. I believe it has done so in great measure. Our role as nurses is a threefold one: education of the public about Aids and its health and social related problems; education of nurses and midwives on how to fulfil their educational and caring roles; providing safe and humane nursing care.