Patients' experiences of comprehensive anti-retroviral treatment rendered by professional nurses at selected primary healthcare clinics in the Eastern Province of South Africa

Abstract

Studies indicate that once persons living with AIDS (PLWAs) enter the healthcare system, they run the risk of receiving inadequate care because of being stigmatised by healthcare providers (Bos, Schaalma & Pryor, 2008:450). The purpose of the study was to determine how PLWAs experienced their treatment by professional nurses at primary health care (PHC) clinics in one metropolitan area in South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design. Purposive sampling was used to select ten participants who fitted the selection criteria from selected public primary healthcare (PHC) clinics in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. In-depth unstructured interviews were transcribed verbatim by an independent person. An independent coder assisted with the data analysis. PLWAs had fewer negative than positive experiences at the participating PHC clinics. Negative experiences included stigma-related encounters and distrust of the lay health counsellors. Positive experiences generally related to the PLWAs' satisfaction with the services received. Based on the findings of the study, guidelines were developed for professional nurses to render more user-friendly comprehensive ART services.