Occupational and longitudinal differences in health-care and non-health-care worker attitudes concerning AIDS exposure and work: evidence of professional dedication.

To assess changes in occupational preferences of health-care workers in response to the AIDS epidemic, attitudes for nine issues concerning AIDS in the workplace were gathered in 1990 and 1992. AIDS-aversive patterns strengthened for both health-care and non-health-care workers over time as AIDS incidence rose. Compared to non-health-care workers, significantly more health-care workers showed greater concern over job related AIDS exposure, and over time they also reported more approval of testing and status disclosure for AIDS. Despite these concerns, significantly more health-care workers than non-health-care workers were willing to work with an AIDS-infected coworker or boss, and significantly fewer health-care workers than non-health-care workers believed they had a right to refuse work with an AIDS-infected coworker. Training had little effect on AIDS-aversive preferences among health-care workers. But significantly more non-health-care workers with AIDS-related "protective" training reported a self-protective rejection of AIDS-infected coworkers. Implications for health-care management are explored.