The health care needs of hospitalized patients with AIDS in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to investigate and highlight health care needs as perceived by hospitalized patients with AIDS (PWA) in Taiwan. Convenience sampling was used for this study. Subjects were chosen from one of the medical centers in metropolitan Taipei, Taiwan. Criteria for sampling were that subjects be diagosed with AIDS, hospitalized without complications of neuropathy, psychosis, or dementia, 12 years old or older, and able to speak Mandarin. Sample size was determined by the saturation principle. Eight subjects were interviewed in depth using a semistructured interview guide. These interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. Content analysis was applied to analyze interview data. The double coding percentage agreement was 0.81, and the interceder percentage agreement was 0.89. Results revealed the most important health care needs associated with these patients included obtaining information about AIDS, protecting privacy, improving the quality and quantity of health care, securing family members' safety and financial security, and accepting the grief process. These findings suggest that the needs of the PWAs must be identified before nursing care is provided. Furthermore, developing a health care need scale is recommended for patients with AIDS to more effectively assess their health care needs.