{ "abstract": "Background/Objectives: Nurses and nursing students are central to HIV prevention and care, but studies of their general HIV-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices use heterogeneous populations, instruments, scoring systems, and thresholds. This review had three objectives: (1) to meta-analyze, separately, the prevalence of study-defined high/good general HIV knowledge, mean general knowledge scores, prevalence of study-defined positive/favorable general attitudes, and mean favorable-attitude scores; (2) to synthesize HIV-related clinical-practice findings narratively when measures were not comparable; and (3) to explore whether pooled knowledge and attitude estimates differed between practicing nurses and nursing students. General outcomes excluded narrowly focused PrEP-, PEP-, stigma-only, and item-level constructs. Methods: PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, PsycINFO, and CINAHL Complete were searched for eligible quantitative studies. Four knowledge and attitude outcomes were meta-analyzed in separate random-effects models; practice outcomes were not pooled. Heterogeneity, 95% prediction intervals, leave-one-out influence, possible small-study effects, subgroup differences, and certainty of evidence were assessed. Results: Thirty-four studies were included. The pooled prevalence of high/good HIV-related knowledge was 52.4% (95% CI 30.4-73.5%; I² = 97.5%; 95% prediction interval 3.6-97.0%), and the pooled mean knowledge score was 66.3% of the possible score (95% CI 60.8-71.8%; I² = 99.8%; prediction interval 40.0-92.5%). Positive/favorable attitudes had a pooled prevalence of 41.6% (95% CI 7.3-86.5%; I² = 99.1%; prediction interval 0.0-99.9%), and the pooled mean favorable-attitude score was 48.1% of the possible range (95% CI 41.9-54.2%; I² = 99.7%; prediction interval 21.3-74.8%). Thus, all four meta-analyses showed extreme heterogeneity and wide prediction intervals. Prespecified subgroup tests did not detect nurse-versus-student differences for either knowledge outcome or favorable-attitude prevalence; a higher pooled mean favorable-attitude score among students was observed in one exploratory comparison. Four studies reported non-equivalent practice indicators (16.0-85.3%), which were not pooled. Certainty was very low for all meta-analyzed outcomes. Conclusions: The pooled estimates should be interpreted as descriptive summaries across heterogeneous operationalizations rather than as precise global nursing-workforce benchmarks or common competency thresholds. More standardized measurement, objective assessment of clinical practice, and longitudinal and interventional research are needed.", "abstract_shown": true, "affiliations": [ "Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Public Health, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty 050038, Kazakhstan.", "Department of Public Health and Health Care, Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University Named After B.N. Yeltsin, Bishkek 720000, Kyrgyzstan.", "Department of Nursing, Kazakhstan Medical University \"KSPH\", Almaty 050060, Kazakhstan.", "Salidat Kairbekova National Scientific Center for Healthcare Development, Ministry of Healthcare of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Almaty 050010, Kazakhstan.", "Department of Research Management, JSC Research Institute of Cardiology and Internal Diseases, Almaty 050012, Kazakhstan.", "Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA 30458, USA." ], "article_type": "review article", "arxiv": null, "author_total": 8, "authors": [ { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Roza Alekesheva", "orcid": "0009-0005-4472-8284" }, { "affs": [ 1 ], "name": "Dzhyldyz Ibraimova", "orcid": "0000-0001-7220-1168" }, { "affs": [ 2 ], "name": "Shnara Svetlanova", "orcid": "0009-0002-4546-1452" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Zhanar Ibraimzhanova", "orcid": "0009-0009-2461-3980" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Ainur Seitmanova", "orcid": "0009-0001-2346-5658" }, { "affs": [ 0 ], "name": "Galiya Bilibayeva", "orcid": "0000-0002-1483-2487" }, { "affs": [ 3 ], "name": "Sholpan Karzhaubayeva", "orcid": "0000-0002-6872-1651" }, { "affs": [ 4, 5 ], "name": "Indira Karibayeva", "orcid": "0000-0003-1796-2604" } ], "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/33xszhn8wsaym.bib", "cited_by": 0, "doi": "10.3390/healthcare14193159", "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13665525", "id": "33xszhn8wsaym", "issns": [ "2227-9032" ], "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42881598", "language": "eng", "licence": "CC-BY", "licence_label": "CC BY", "licence_source": "article", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/", "metadata_licence": null, "native_subjects": [ [ "openalex", "2725|HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions" ] ], "openalex": "W7214077415", "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13665525?pdf=render", "pmcid": "PMC13665525", "pmid": "42881598", "published": "2026-09-23", "publisher": null, "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/33xszhn8wsaym.ris", "sources": [ { "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:16Z", "native_id": "MED:42881598", "source": "europepmc", "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42881598" } ], "subjects": [ { "field": "medicine", "origin": "openalex:2725|HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions", "subfield": "infectious-disease" } ], "title": "General HIV-Related Knowledge and Attitudes Among Nurses and Nursing Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with Narrative Synthesis of Clinical Practices (2011-2026).", "title_text": "General HIV-Related Knowledge and Attitudes Among Nurses and Nursing Students: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis with Narrative Synthesis of Clinical Practices (2011-2026).", "type": "peer-reviewed", "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:16Z", "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/33xszhn8wsaym", "venue": "Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)", "versions": [] }