The purpose of this study was to develop Associate Degree nursing program guidelines for Riverside Community College (RCC), in California, regarding mandatory nursing student assignment to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) patients, and student refusal of such assignments in a clinical setting. During the 1990 fall semester, RCC's Nursing Curriculum Committee drafted and revised the guidelines with the researcher serving as facilitator. Two surveys were conducted for data collection. First, 25 administrators, representing the Dean/Director's Organization of Southern California Associate Degree Nurses, were surveyed to determine the status of any existent AIDS-related policies for nursing programs. In addition, 12 RCC nursing faculty were surveyed to determine their attitudes, beliefs, and concerns about mandatory AIDS-related assignments for students. Selected findings included the following: (1) 56% of the administrators did not ensure that all of their nursing students were assigned to AIDS patients; (2) 84% of the administrators indicated that their institutions did not have a policy regarding the right of a student to refuse to care for AIDS patients; (3) 50% of the faculty felt that nursing students should be assigned as students to AIDS patients; (4) 76.9% of the faculty members were willing to participate in clinical procedures with students who were assigned to AIDS patients; and (5) 53.8% of the faculty felt that students had a right to refuse assignment to an AIDS patient. The study report includes the "Policy for Student Assignment to AIDS/HIV-Seropositive Clients," which was approved by 75% of RCC's nursing faculty, a literature review, recommendations, the survey instruments, and narrative responses. (MAB)