Nurses Perceptions About Their Provision Of Mental Health Care : People living with HIV/AIDS in Blantyre District, Malawi

The purpose of the study was to explore nurses' perceptions about their provision of mental health care to PLWHA in Blantyre district. A quantitative study was conducted to explore nurses' perceptions about their provision of mental health care to PLWHA in Blantyre. Permission was granted by relevant authorities to conduct the study. Between March and April 2010, 165 nurses were randomly sampled from all wards and other departments at a central hospital and five selected health centres. They gave a written consent before joining the study. 151 questionnaires which were completed at participant's convenient time were personally collected. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data and nonparametric tests were also used to explore associations amongst variables. This study found that nurses' perceptions about their provision of mental health care to PLWHA vary. Most nurses reported positive perceptions about caring for PLWHA who have MHP in general settings although some had negative perceptions. It was apparent that a relationship exists between nurses' willingness to deal with MHP and perceptions about their knowledge, skills & access to support from mental health specialist.