Medical students and AIDS: knowledge, attitudes and implications for education.

Second year medical students at a large midwestern university were surveyed about their attitudes regarding AIDS. Results indicated: (1) students with homosexual and/or HIV-positive friends were significantly more tolerant toward AIDS patients, (2) over half the students believed that treating AIDS patients may be hazardous and that their education had not prepared them to treat these patients safely, (3) one-third believed they had the right to refuse to treat AIDS patients, and (4) AIDS-phobia was significantly associated with homophobia. These data suggest that medical educators may need to help students overcome AIDS-phobia before some students will be able to incorporate instruction about AIDS since AIDS-phobia may inhibit this learning. Didactic instruction must be coupled with modeling by educators of non-prejudicial attitudes and strict adherence to medical professionalism.

Medical student homophobia.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether homophobia existed in a sample of the second-year medical school class before beginning a course on Human Sexuality. METHOD: We administered a questionnaire to a sample of the second-year class at an introductory lecture to the course on Human Sexuality. This questionnaire asked twelve questions regarding attitudes about homosexuality, and incorporated questions from other surveys used previously. RESULTS: The data indicated significant homophobia. One-quarter of the students reported believing homosexuality is immoral and dangerous to the institution of the family, and expressed aversion to socializing with homosexuals. Nine percent believed homosexuality to be a mental disorder and 14% felt more homophobia since AIDS. CONCLUSIONS: Medical student homophobia, if left unchallenged, will hinder care provided to homosexual patients. Physician homophobia may disallow a healthy doctor-patient relationship and may cause a decrease in patients' ability to disclose sensitive issues.