Background: Self-directed learning is important for the ongoing professional education of 
nurses. Caring is one of the most attributes of nurses providing care for the patients with AIDS. 
So they are expected to have the knowledge, accurate practices, and positive attitudes toward 
such patients who have no chance to cure. Aim: Evaluate effect of self-learning intervention on 
knowledge, attitudes and care provided among nurses caring for HIV\ AIDs patients in fever 
hospitals. Design: Quasi-experimental study research. Setting: Tanta and Alexandria fever 
hospitals. Subjects: 79 nurses who provide direct care to HIV/ AIDS patients in previous 
settings Tools: Tool I: HIV knowledge Questionnaire (HIVKQ 20) which was developed by 
Carey and Schroder (2002); Tool II: AIDS Attitude Scale which was developed by Forman et 
al, (1992); Tool III: Observation checklist to assess practice of nurses dealing with HIV/ 
AIDS patients. Results: 54.4% of the studied nurses had low Knowledge scores and this 
percentage decreased to 5.1% post-self-learning program. The percentage of the nurses who 
had positive attitudes increased from 3% to 27.8 % in post-self- learning. The majority (92.4%) 
of them had unsatisfactory practice in pre-self-learning and this decreased to only 17.7% postself-learning. Statistically significant correlation was found between total knowledge and 
attitude scores. Conclusion and recommendation: Self learning had a significant positive 
effect on knowledge, attitudes and different care aspects among studied nurses. So its 
recommended to encourage continuous learning and training among nurses working with AIDS 
patients with emphasize on maintaining positive attitudes and patients right to take optimal care 
regardless to his disease.