Infectious Diseases

Biography

Biography: Nichola Ashby

Abstract

Individuals or groups will form impressions of another based upon a series of traits, which may be relied upon when forming behaviour pattern towards others (Asch, 1946; Crocker and Major, 1989;  Pinel, 1999; Albon, 2002; Corrigan and Wassel, 2008). These traits will depict the reception individuals receive within healthcare and may depend upon learnt and inherited ‘perceived’ ideals affecting the working and personal relationships experienced by healthcare workers with a positive diagnosis o f infection, predisposing stigma responses to others (Asch, 1946)
A longitudinal exploratory study was undertaken over three years investigating the potential existence of stigmatising values from student nurses towards positively diagnosed healthcare workers with Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB), Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA), Hepatitis C and Diabetes type 2, was undertaken (Ashby, 2015). The mixed methods used to analyse data provided an interpretive exploration of the stigmatising attitudes and values of 482 student nurses undertaking an education programme.  Interpretation of the findings explored the participants views at course commencement, midpoint and completion considering variables of education (theoretical and clinical), personal and professional influences.    
Principle Component Analysis of the data provided components for three ANOVA’s and the within-subjects repeated measures showed little significance between disease groups. Further qualitative data was analysed to provide interpretation of these results demonstrating the presence of stigma. Therefore, the study recommends the implementation of a longitudinal education model for all healthcare workers, considering disease processes and influencing factors psychologically, socially and physically, which will provide opportunities to reduce the existence of stigmatisation for positively diagnosed healthcare workers.