Interview Summary
The problem of HIV management has recently become one of the major points of concerns for a local health organization. Due to the drop in health literacy levels among vulnerable groups, along with restricted access to the necessary healthcare resources, the levels of HIV have risen among the specified demographic. Adjusting the performance of the target hospital with the enhancement of nurse-to-patient collaboration and communication leading to patient education is expected to believe the best solution in the outlined scenario.
According to the interview, the approach that the organization is currently undertaking to accommodate the needs of vulnerable groups that face the threat of HIV development, as well as patients with HIV, includes the strategies based on program collaboration and service integration (PCSI). The PCSI tool has been viewed as one of the innovative solutions to addressing the health concerns of people with HIV (Bernard, Tailor, Jones, & Alexander, 2016).
Although the suggested framework does offer multiple advantages, it could use substantial improvements. For example, the interviewee pointed out the absence of effective consultations for members of the target community. Vulnerable groups need to be provided with active support that includes not only the availability of the necessary resources, including medication but also emotional and psychological support.
Herein lies the importance of introducing the assistance of a consultant into the healthcare environment. Currently, the hospital is facing several challenges to providing effective care to HIV patients, the problem of HIV being underreported and patients taking HIV tests very reluctantly being the key one. Therefore, the alleviation of the social stigma that HIV patients experience should be deemed as one of the priorities for nurses.
The interview has also shown that the lack of focus on the development of home-based therapy is one of the crucial aspects of the modern HIV management processes that weakens the current framework for addressing the disease. Indeed, the lack of homogeneity in the process of addressing the needs of HIV patients and the unavailability of a home-based treatment program are among the essential factors that aggravate the current situation.
Finally, the nurse mentioned the lack of control over the adherence to antiretroviral therapy, which is essential for people with HIV. Overall, there is a considerable lack of leadership and governance from the organization from the perspective of the National CLAS Standards (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). The current strategies used by the hospital are restricted to free consultations and tests for community members, which is not enough to prevent the HIV epidemic from occurring (Dehne et al., 2016). Therefore, the current concern about the introduction of appropriate tools for promoting patient education for people with HIV seems legitimate.
Complying with the National CLAS Standards is crucial for the hospital currently since it will guide staff members to better care and allow improving the quality of life in patients diagnosed with HIV. Moreover, by following the National CLAS Standards, the hospital staff will be able to establish a strong rapport with community members, which is currently quite difficult due to the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
The introduction of the National CLAS Standards, in turn, will empower nurses to adopt the strategies that will help to shed light on the problem of HIV in the community and encourage its members to offer support to patients. Moreover, the improvement in communication will also imply overcoming the language barrier that currently poses a significant threat to advocating for the rights and needs of patients with HIV.
Recommendations
The absence of awareness about the phenomenon of HIV, its nature, and the tools for addressing it are among the key concerns that aggravate the situation in the target community and make the process of managing patients’ needs extremely complicated. Therefore, it is currently advised that the process of patient education should be launched. Along with the described measure, the introduction of community education should be deemed as a necessity. Due to the absence of knowledge about the health specifics and needs of people with HIV, the latter has become highly stigmatized (Turan et al., 2017). Therefore, the launch of a major program geared toward the education of the entire community and the promotion of awareness about people with HIV and their needs should be deemed is a necessity.
The integration of nurse-led home interventions should also be seen as a basic step in handling the current situation with HIV rates since, due to the stigma, a substantial number of patients are likely to be unwilling to address an expert in the hospital environment (Treves-Kagan et al., 2017). As Webster (2013) explains, the experiment suggested that Specifically, the mechanisms of inheritance and the acquisition of an HIV virus will be explained to general audiences, causing the levels of social biases to drop. Consequently, channels for nurse-patient communication should be built to manage the current problem of dire health education rates.
The incorporation and reinforcement of the National CLAS Standards in the hospital context as a tool for reducing the threat of HIV and meeting the needs of patients with HIV should also be seen as an absolute necessity. Currently, not all of the National CLAS Standards have been deployed into the target setting, with the problem of communication being one of the main causes of concern. Building awareness to reduce the drastic effects of the social stigma that HIV patients experience will allow increasing the levels of the target demographics’ education. Moreover, the drop in the influence of prejudices will help to convince community members to extend their support to HIV patients. As a result, an increase in the quality of HIV patients’ lives is expected to occur.
Finally, a strategy for HIV prevention should be launched in the community. It needs to target young people that can be seen as vulnerable due to the exposure to certain socioeconomic and sociocultural factors. Focusing on the strategies that could help to avoid contracting HIV, such as the use of a condom, ensuring that a needle is clean, seeking immediate medical care in case of pregnancy, and other critical steps for reducing the probability of HIV development should be incorporated into the program. In addition, a nurse will need to utilize the latest tools for maintaining awareness rates in the selected community high (Ghosh et al., 2017).
For this purpose, the application of social networks, such as Facebook, for education and continuous communication will have to be recognized as an urgent need. By increasing access to healthcare services and information, one will be able to boost the process of health literacy acquisition, which, in turn, will help people to gain a better idea of how to prevent, manage, and control the problem of HIV.
References
Bernard, S., Tailor, A., Jones, P., & Alexander, D. E. (2016). Addressing the medical and support service needs of people living with HIV (PLWH) through program collaboration and service integration (PCSI). Californian Journal of Health Promotion, 14(1), 1-14.
Dehne, K. L., Dallabetta, G., Wilson, D., Garnett, G. P., Laga, M., Benomar, E.,… Bermejo, A. (2016). HIV Prevention 2020: a framework for delivery and a call for action. The Lancet HIV, 3(7), 323-332. Web.
Ghosh, D., Krishnan, A., Gibson, B., Brown, S. E., Latkin, C. A., & Altice, F. L. (2017). Social network strategies to address HIV prevention and treatment continuum of care among at-risk and HIV-infected substance users: A systematic scoping review. AIDS and Behavior, 21(4), 1183-1207. Web.
Treves-Kagan, S., El Ayadi, A. M., Pettifor, A., MacPhail, C., Twine, R., Maman, S.,… Lippman, S. A. (2017). Gender, HIV testing and stigma: the association of HIV testing behaviors and community-level and individual-level stigma in rural South Africa differ for men and women. AIDS and Behavior, 21(9), 2579-2588. Web.
Turan, B., Budhwani, H., Fazeli, P. L., Browning, W. R., Raper, J. L., Mugavero, M. J., & Turan, J. M. (2017). How does stigma affect people living with HIV? The mediating roles of internalized and anticipated HIV stigma in the effects of perceived community stigma on health and psychosocial outcomes. AIDS and Behavior, 21(1), 283-291. Web.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). The national CLAS standards.