Census trends in AIDS specialty units.

As HIV disease evolves into a chronic and manageable disease, monitoring trends in HIV/AIDS inpatient use will become an important tool clinicians can use to analyze the need for organizational changes in patient care delivery. Monitoring census trends can assist nurses in developing plans of care and evaluating outcome in HIV patients. Nurse managers of AIDS Specialty Units (ASUs) are at the forefront of identifying current inpatient use trends. This article investigates census trends in selected ASUs from the perspective of ASU nurse managers and describes the factors that nurse managers believe to have influenced census trends. Implications for further research are provided.