Empathic learning: an innovative teaching strategy to improve attitudes toward caring for persons with HIV/AIDS.

The authors conducted a pretest-posttest experimental study to explore the effect of an innovative teaching strategy ("The Circle of Life") on nursing students' knowledge, attitudes, and concerns about caring for persons with AIDS (PWAs). The students (N = 43) who participated in the intervention demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in attitudes toward PWAs. Interventions such as this one, which engage the affective response, have potential for improving attitudes toward caring for individuals with stigmatizing conditions.