6^th World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

Biography

Biography: Tcheunkeu Ebanga Nadine

Abstract

Background: Initiating HIV+ patients on ART require lifelong commitment to treatment. Nurses are the first health care workers these patients meet in the hospital and thus failure for nurses to establish a cordial relationship with these clients can lead to refusal to start treatment and more especially stopping treatment by patients who have started. Stopping treatment at anytime will lead to increase morbidity and mortality. Rational: This study sought to bring out the importance of good nurse patient relationship in reducing loss to follow-up and enhancing patients’ adherence to treatment. Methodology: Four hospitals were use for this study which included to public hospitals and two religious hospitals. Data was then collected for 12 months comparing the rate of adherence of patients on ART in mission hospitals and that of patients on public hospitals. The study lasted for 12 months and a total of 450 naïve clients were enrolled on ART from all 4 hospitals at the start of the study. Results: Out of these 450 patients seen at the start of the studies 300 (66.7%) was coming from the public hospitals while 150 (33.3%) was the number of patients seen by the mission hospital. A six months survey was conducted to assess how many of the patients in both sites were still coming regularly for their follow up and refills. It was noticed that in the public hospitals they still had 200 i.e., 66.7% patients coming regularly while the mission sites still had 110(73.3%) faithful clients. The last survey was done after 12 months on the same sites considering the same number that is 450 clients which were enrolled in the study at the very beginning. There was no doubt that the public hospitals still had more lost to follow-up cases than the mission as they had lost another 30 clients leaving them with 120. Hence their total loss to follow up clients was 180 patients while the mission settings had lost more 15 clients so their total loss to follow-up clients came up to 55 patients. Conclusion: The public hospitals loss more patients on ART than the mission hospitals they loss up to 180 patients making it a percentage loss of 60 while the mission just recorded a percentage loss of 36.7. It was so because the mission nurses played a key role as they are more welcoming and caring due to their strong religious affiliation that makes them more empathetic and comforting than their counterparts of the public settings. Nurses have a vital role in making patients stick to ARTs.