Providing Care to Patients with AIDS: How Prepared are Nigerian Physiotherapists

Adequate knowledge and core affective traits are important for effective management of patients with contagious diseases or conditions like AIDS. This study aimed to assess Nigerian physiotherapists’ cognitive and affective traits in providing care to patients living with AIDS (PWA). Methods: Physiotherapists across Nigeria (N=132) were surveyed using a 43-item questionnaire that elicited information on their demographic characteristics, knowledge of transmission, universal precaution and pathophysiology on AIDS, their feeling of preparedness, comfort, ethical disposition to care for PWA and their willingness to assess and provide intervention to PWA in different clinical scenarios.Results: The physiotherapists’ knowledge of AIDS pathophysiology was unsatisfactory, half of them did not have satisfactory knowledge of precaution, one-third recorded unsatisfactory score on feeling of comfort and ethical disposition, and one-fifth did not feel adequately prepared to care for PWA. Knowledge of transmission, pathophysiology and ethical disposition were respectively influenced by physiotherapists’ religious affiliation, rank and gender. Marital status, previous experience in caring for PWA, and gender were influential to willingness to evaluate and treat in two and three clinical scenarios respectively. Physiotherapists were less willing to provide whirlpool wound care procedures compared to other procedural interventions. Conclusions: The study identified improvement need in the cognitive and affective domain of learning among these practitioners in the care of PWA.