Pastoral care and AIDS: Assessing the stress and satisfaction from caring for persons with AIDS

Members from religious communities in New York City (17 men, 8 women) who volunteer pastoral care to persons with AIDS completed and returned through the mail the (AIDS) Caregiver Scale and the Attitudes toward AIDS Scale. Results indicated that satisfaction from providing care was related to pastoral training, an understanding of the spiritual nature of death, and a positive attitude toward persons with AIDS. Self-reported stress from providing care was inversely related to pastoral training to deal with death. The pastoral volunteers also reported greater satisfaction and lower stress from caregiving than volunteer buddies from upstate New York.