Nurses' social representations about their work with people with HIV/AIDS

The study had as objective to describe what nurses think on the work of taking care of HIV/AIDS patients, what their difficulties and the consequences of this kind of work in their personal lives. Starting from the theory of social representations it was possible to understand that nurses have as an ideal the assistance in an integral manner of HIV/AIDS patients, but the contamination mechanism, the AIDS social stigma and several current difficulties on the relationship with those patients reveal ambiguities on their actions and feelings. The nurses conflicts make them develop strategies against the suffering caused by the conviviality with patients and also try to preserve through the worth of living the modification of their atitudes.