The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV for short) primarily affects the body’s immune system. One of the features of HIV infection, which has turned into an epidemic in recent years, is the presence of the so-called seronegative or latent period. Its essence is that for 2-3 months from the moment of infection, the virus does not manifest itself in the blood, and all tests give only a negative result. In this case, the patient does not feel changes and feels completely healthy. Moreover, without feeling the symptoms of the disease, it can transmit the virus to others. Specific treatment of HIV-positive patients with antiretroviral drugs (which prevent the reproduction of the virus and the destruction of the immune system) is carried out at the AIDS center according to indications.
Definition of Risk Group and Problem Population
A patient is a man diagnosed with HIV, Derek Hale, a 28-year-old homosexual man. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2022) estimates that 30,635 people in the United States were diagnosed with HIV in 2020. During my practical work, I spent 20 hours working with a patient. These data indicate that the population of the disease in the Starne is not destroyed, and it is of current importance. At the same time, stratification in incidence statistics can be observed since HIV infects certain population groups more often than others. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021), in 2019, 66% of all new HIV diagnoses in the United States were in gay and bisexual men. This may indicate that this social group is at risk, and specific protection mechanisms should be developed.
HIV is of great public concern as it is a global public health problem affecting millions. Moreover, HIV infection can lead to AIDS, which is a direct threat to people’s lives. Patients living with HIV can also often face stigma and discrimination, affecting their quality of life and access to health care. For me, the problem of HIV is relevant because, in my practice, I will be able to find better ways to solve particular problems for HIV-infected people.
Relevance of the Problem for Nursing Practice
For HIV patients, timely care and communication play an essential role since often their psychological state is depressed. In this regard, such people require holistic and comprehensive medical care. Nurses are an integral part of caring for people living with HIV as they help them prevent further infection and the spread of infection (Nelson et al., 2019). Nurses can educate patients on how to prevent the spread of HIV and how to deal with the virus if they are living with it. Nurses can also emotionally support patients with HIV and their families (Razzaq et al., 2023). In addition, nurses can raise public awareness of the problem and dispel many prejudices about HIV-infected people to improve their quality of life. At the same time, raising awareness for the patients themselves is also an essential part of the work of nurses since they need to give as much up-to-date information about the disease as possible. Thus, by studying evidence-based literature, you can create your own research base in order to better understand the problem. This will allow a correct assessment of the spread of the disease and improve understanding of care practices.
Literature Evidence on Nursing Action for HIV
In the literature, the issue of HIV and nursing care is widely researched. Nursing can be vital to preventing the disease and spread of HIV (Berlacher et al., 2021). Such information should include various data on how the infection is transmitted and what preventive measures can be taken. Researchers such as Puttkammer, Emmanuel Demes, Dervis, Chéry, Elusdort, Haight, Balan, and Simoni (2022) also pay significant attention to aspects such as patient education on control and antiretroviral therapy. These aspects are essential in research as they help to new strategic ways to help people with HIV and those around them (Puttkammer et al., 2019). Mammbona and Mavhandu-Mudzusi’s (2019) research papers emphasize emotional care for patients and their families. Such assistance is vital for people because, in such diseases, it is crucial to have the moral support that professional nurses can provide. Many researchers, including Razzaq, Stephenson, Raynes-Greenow, Travaglia, and Alam (2023), describe essential case studies that may indicate the effectiveness of nursing care.
The literature cited is extremely important for research in this area, as it considers many aspects of patient care and raises people’s awareness of HIV. At the same time, much data provided by the authors of the sources under consideration confirm my practical activities. In particular, these include the psychological aspects of assistance. The data obtained from the analyzed works can be considered reliable as they are confirmed by clinical trials and analysis of many other studies.
It can be found that the data are not reliable by comparing them with real practical experiences. Data on the problem of nurses working with HIV patients can be unreliable if they are not collected and appropriately analyzed. To ensure data reliability, it is essential to use standardized data collection and analysis methods. Therefore, if the researchers ignored these aspects, their work may be untrue. In addition, the reliability of the study can increase the representation of a specific sample, based on which it is possible to isolate individual facts indicative of the problem.
There are some barriers to implementing an evidence-based approach to HIV care. According to Sales et al., (2021), it is possible to distinguish such actual problems as pressing problems, such as lack of sufficient knowledge or experience and lack of resources, including financial ones. The practical application of treatment methods largely depends on how nurses can apply modern methods of care. To do this, they need specific knowledge that significantly improves the practice of caring for HIV patients. On the other hand, the problem of lack of resources can become another significant obstacle since the lack of equipment in clinics significantly affects the quality of care.
HIV Standards and Policies
Standards of practice for nursing provided at the federal level as well as at the local level can significantly affect the patient’s problem. The effectiveness of patient care policies and norms has been field tested and documented in many studies by authors such as Berg, Page, Øgår-Repål, Kuo, Roche, Mugambi, Pintye, Baeten, Bukusi, Ngure, Stergachis, and Ortblad. Generally, standardized practices are one of the essential elements for meaningful assistance. The introduction of nurse-led care models has been associated with improvements in the psychological well-being of patients and their environment (Berg et al., 2021). Moreover, using qualified care services can impact the preventive warning of the spread of the disease. Practicing HIV awareness in a public health context is effective and can significantly reduce new transmission of the disease (Kuo et al., 2022). In these cases, all available dissemination practices are important because they can provide an advantage to the public. The role of nurses in developing such practices is paramount because they are in direct contact with patients and can provide a complete analysis of and need for specific work options.
The conceptual framework of nursing can help guide the use of the right skilled methods of caring for people with HIV. In addition, the theory of sisterhood allows the developing of a specific behavior model for providing support and assistance through which it can be significantly improved the condition of patients. This model emphasizes the importance of person-centered care and includes components such as self-management support, treatment coordination, and community resources (Zhang et al., 2022). Thus, theoretical foundations can largely determine the behavior of nurses during practice.
State policy can directly affect the problem of HIV-infected people, as it is responsible for the development of preventive measures to combat the spread of the disease. Thus, without reliable regulation of the actions necessary to provide patient care, the medical system cannot function effectively. For example, nursing practice standards may set out requirements for medication administration, patient education, and care coordination. In this case, they directly affect how the health worker will act to provide care to patients. Policies that support access to health care and HIV prevention can also improve people’s treatment outcomes.
Many studies have been conducted to determine how effective the policies adopted by the state are in combating HIV. For example, Kates, Dawson, Horn, Killelea, McCann, Crowley, and Walensky (2021) have done detailed work to explore the impact of federal nursing and HIV prevention policies. In this way, it is possible to learn that they are adequate enough to allow nurses to perform their duties better. This study also highlights the role of nurses in developing relevant policies in this area. It is rated as high because these workers are in direct contact with patients and have the necessary experience and knowledge in this area. This allows nurses to participate in developing theories of work in HIV-infected people. The influence of federal policy on the practice of nurses in working with HIV patients is significant since the state develops the main provisions for providing instructions. In this way, it helps to standardize all care methods and gives the necessary understanding of the importance of caring for such patients.
Leadership Strategies, Communication and Change Management
Collaboration, communication, and change management are key components of planning an effective HIV strategy. In addition, the skills to implement change can provide a medical institution with the necessary innovative approaches to patient care. Important leadership strategies can be developed to improve patient-centered care outcomes. One such effective technique is the creation of interdisciplinary teams, including nurses, doctors, social workers, and other healthcare providers. Thus, it will allow for effective coordination of the actions of medical workers in order to effectively counter the threat of HIV. These specialized teams are able to provide comprehensive services to meet the specific complex needs of patients in this area. At the same time, empowering qualified personnel with the necessary authority can determine the correct approach to managing the care of HIV patients.
Effective communication between healthcare providers, patients, and families can promote treatment adherence, symptom management, and care coordination. Many studies on the effectiveness of such leadership strategies reveal the correct approaches to managing medical teams (Pichon et al., 2020). Investigations on this topic can significantly help to improve the necessary mechanisms for working with patients with HIV. As such, leadership must play a critical role in addressing the immediate needs of HIV patients. Thus, achieving the most desired results in patient care will be possible through the timely coordination of actions. This will require specific strategies that can be developed to coordinate the team’s actions. Communication strategies aim to establish proper corporate ethics to improve the consistency of the work of nurses. For proper change management, it is necessary to follow a gradual implementation, considering all stakeholders’ opinions.
References
Berg, R. C., Page, S., & Øgård-Repål, A. (2021). The effectiveness of peer-support for people living with HIV: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS one, 16(6). Web.
Berlacher, M., Mercer, T., Apondi, E. O., Mwangi, W., Were, E., & McHenry, M. S. (2021). Integrating prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV care into general maternal child health care in Western Kenya. International Journal of Maternal and Child Health and AIDS, 10(1), 19. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). HIV and gay and bisexual men. Web.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). HIV in the United States and dependent areas. Web.
Kuo, A. P., Roche, S. D., Mugambi, M. L., Pintye, J., Baeten, J. M., Bukusi, E., Ngure, K., Stergachis, A. & Ortblad, K. F. (2022). The effectiveness, feasibility and acceptability of HIV service delivery at private pharmacies in sub‐Saharan Africa: a scoping review. Journal of the International AIDS Society, 25(10). Web.
Mammbona, A. A., & Mavhandu‐Mudzusi, A. H. (2019). Enrolled nurses’ experiences of caring for patients living with HIV in a South African rural hospital. International nursing review, 66(1), 139-146. Web.
Pichon, L. C., Williams Powell, T., Williams Stubbs, A., Becton-Odum, N., Ogg, S., Arnold, T., & Thurston, I. B. (2020). An exploration of US Southern faith Leaders’ perspectives of HIV prevention, sexuality, and sexual health teachings. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(16), 5734. Web.
Puttkammer, N., Emmanuel Demes, J. A., Dervis, W., Chéry, J. M., Elusdort, J., Haight, E., Balan, J. & Simoni, J. M. (2022). The situated information, motivation, and behavioral skills model of HIV antiretroviral therapy adherence among persons living with HIV in Haiti: A qualitative study incorporating culture and context. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 33(4), 448-458. Web.
Razzaq, A., Stephenson, N., Raynes-Greenow, C., Travaglia, J., & Alam, N. A. (2023). Understanding the relationship between the public sector healthcare workers and NGO-based HIV counsellors while providing HIV counselling and testing services to pregnant women: A Qualitative Study in Suva, Fiji. Midwifery. Web.
Sales, J. M., Anderson, K. M., & Kokubun, C. W. (2021). Application of the consolidated framework for implementation research to facilitate violence screening in HIV care settings: a review of the literature. Current HIV/AIDS Reports, 18, 309-327. Web.
Zhang, C., Przybylek, S., Braksmajer, A., & Liu, Y. (2022). An Integrated Conceptual Framework of Behavioral Intervention Technologies to Promote Healthcare Utilization Among Socially-Marginalized Populations in the United States. Journal of nursing studies and patient care, 3(1), 12. Web.
Nelson, L. E., McMahon, J. M., Leblanc, N. M., Braksmajer, A., Crean, H. F., Smith, K., & Xue, Y. (2019). Advancing the case for nurse practitioner‐based models to accelerate scale‐up of HIV pre‐exposure prophylaxis. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(1-2), 351-361. Web.