Exploring Employment Seeking Behaviors Of Persons With Hiv / Aids

My second clinical day took place on September 24th, 2015 at Saint Barnabas Hospital in Livingston, New Jersey. My preceptor Maria Brilhante, MSN, RN, allowed me to observe the morning huddle that took place with all the nurse managers that are in the hospital. The purpose of this huddle was to keep the director of nursing informed about the census on each unit. I found this processed to be very uniformed and professional because the DON was engaged. The day went on with me attending meetings on how managers could implement plans to contain cost for the hospital. Maria did her daily rounds on her patients and her nursing staff. She has a folder that contains papers on how each nurse is progressing from the time they get off orientation. Her motto to the nurses is, “You are good at what you do, so when I coach don’t take offense. I am only trying to get you to be great”. This boost their confidence which I thought to be important.

“Let’s create an AIDS/HIV-free generation”, which is not only a slogan that was proposed by President Obama but also a goal that I would like to achieve on my future career path. My practicum project at the Department of Health and Human Services was to generate dataset of new AIDS/HIV cases in Houston/Harris area required by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and then to use ArcGIS software to make a map describing the new diagnosed in Houston area. The final products can be spatially lined to other sources to enhance understanding of social determinants of health affecting populations impacted by HIV. This practicum experience let me realize that AIDS spreads so quickly is because most people have insufficient knowledge or misconception about the disease and prevention. Becoming a pharmacist to provide prevention service and educate people to improve their health and wellbeing is how I want to reach the goal of creating an AIDS/HIV-free generation.

Nurses work in systems that are complex, rapidly changing, and beleaguered with financial and workforce pressures. One response to these chal­lenges is to find alternative ways to make an insufficient or detrimental system work for the nurse to get the job done and to achieve the desired patient out­come. While perhaps well intention-ed to produce the desired result, workarounds

With the help of government programs such as the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) as well as multiple other methods of sociological research and social justice work, there have been shifts toward better understanding this disease, those which are living with it, and the societal impact one’s own prejudices can make toward an individual living with AIDS. However, discrepancies still exist within how to properly educate others on the disease, how to recognize it as a disability within the context of our society, and how we must reconcile stigmas that play a role in plaguing any sort of positive conversation on the topic. With well-informed citizens on the issues of HIV and AIDS patients, not only can we reduce the stigma associated with the illness, but also work toward medical advancements that assist those living with HIV in a nondiscriminatory manner.

I worked directly with the HIV/AIDS population as well as individuals whose behaviors place them at high risk for becoming infected. I am currently the Supervisor for the AIDS Institute Linkage and Navigation Program where I am responsible for overseeing the delivery of services. These services encompass but are not limited to entitlements, referral to agencies that assist with identifying appropriate housing, referral to medical, mental health and substance use services. I also, oversee treatment adherence services which support clients in their readiness to begin (ARV) antiretroviral therapy and maintain adherence to their prescribed medication for treatment for HIV/AIDS.

The stigma towards HIV positive African-American women also exists within their own communities; unfortunately, this stigma towards these women does not encourage them to come out as HIV positive individuals. The problem with this fear is that it not only worsens the anguish for the sick individual, but also puts the people around the individual at risk. In “Social Context of Rural Women with HIV/AIDS,” authors Kenneth D. Phillips, Linda Moneyham, Sandra P. Thomas, Mary Gunther, Medha Vyavaharkar discuss the significance of the stigma felt by HIV positive women; the authors point out that the existing stigma causes these women to live in secret (2011). In order to keep their illness hidden, they would have to be maintain some form of normalcy with the people around them. Societal stigma plays an important role in the occurrence of HIV; it can be studied by examining the results of “stigma reduction” in African-American communities (Loutfy et al, 2015). HIV stigma reduction is difficult when dealing with African-American women because the stigma of sexism and racism cannot be ignored. One of the other effects of stigma is depression (Logie, James, Tharao, & Loutfy, 2012). In a “multi-method community-based research (CBR) study with Women’s Health in Women’s Hands (WLWH) across Ontario,’’ researchers also found that other forms of stigma like race and gender do correlate with the stigma felt by HIV positive African-American women

The national nursing shortage is predicted to continue to rise to levels that have not been seen since the 1960’s (Fasoli, 2010). Managers must create an environment that is conducive to employees. The leader needs to promote organizational commitment and retain employees by promoting a positive culture on the unit. Nurses want an environment where they can provide high-quality care to patients and leaders must help facilitate and maintain this environment. Employees also want to feel like their opinions matter to the manager, and they have a say in the future of the unit. Employees do not want to feel like they are not important, or their voices are not being heard.

Attitudes on PLWHA can also be a challenge to employment (Conyers et al. 2016). HIV positive individuals often fear being ostracized after disclosure of their illness to employers and coworkers (Conyers et al. 2016). Those not employed may not see employment as an option due to their illness. In addition, those receiving Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and other benefits fear losing benefits when returning to work (Conyers et al. 2016).

AIDS is a worldwide epidemic that has affected and is affecting millions of people. Even though it was not discovered until 1982 many stereotypes have come along with it. Mary Fisher is an AIDS community member and is not afraid to stand up and say so. Defending and helping those with HIV/AIDS and helping them spread the word instead of keeping silent. In 1991 she found out that she had contracted the disease from her second husband and now Fisher is one of the world’s leading activists in the fight against HIV/AIDS. (Newman, 2010)

Taking care of your staff, emotional needs, physical needs, and establishing an excellent work environment is imperative to the production of work, and the retention of your staff. Therefore with the participative style of leadership, effective communication is imperative in nursing. Communication whether through emails, meetings, one-on-one, or in a group must be done with respect, directly to the point of what is being said and required along with the awareness of their own feelings and biases so that what is being communicated is acceptable to enhance the workplace and not hinder it (Huber, 2014). One of the ways I communicate is with nursing meetings. In the meetings I usually start with things that are facility wide, then maybe new procedures that is being implemented, and I always end with the nurses bringing in any problems, concerns, needs or wants. The last key element that is important for the leader to be able to have meaningful recognition of their employees. Recognition of employees not only facilitates the wiliness to strive more, but it also reiterates to the staff, that they are appreciated (Huber, 2014). There are several ways to recognize staff; one is

HIV is a personal experience, but too often HIV care is seen as the burden of the individual, a situation that the person brought on themselves (Melton, 2011). However, one's personal experience is often larger than just the individual. The burden of finding relevant HIV information and care should never be placed solely on the shoulders of those grappling with the disease and the stigma attached to it. Just as social constructions and institutional inadequacies have gotten HIV positive black women to the point where they must find support within their own community, the repair of those institutions and rejection of those social constructions will aid HIV positive black women. The resilience of black women and what they have learned just by talking to each other will be crucial in the success of HIV programming, which should rely on an understanding of medicine and as well as an appreciation of the lived experiences of black women living with HIV. Black women, HIV programs, medical professionals, and even lawmaking bodies can and should work together to disseminate knowledge and form the best possible plan of action to reach HIV positive black women (Purcell & McCree, 2009). HIV outreach is not a zero-sum game; in order to achieve lower rates of HIV and more knowledge in the hands of HIV positive black women, cooperation is truly

The vast majority of clients at the Boston Living Center applied for disability. Federal law qualifies HIV/AIDS as a federal disability so that means that HIV-infected individuals can work as long as they perform essential functions and don’t pose any safety concerns for anyone in the workplace. Most of the clients at the Boston Living Center are employed and work on various jobs. One of them I talked to is an artist and photographer. He told me that he sells his paintings and pictures on the street and online. He created his own website. The client told me that he likes to have his own schedule. He told me that he also works as a cashier and wakes up early in the morning to go to work. He told me that he asked his employer to change his schedule because he couldn’t fully function in the morning and experienced a severe fatigue. The employer is obliged to change or adjust job schedule and workplace policies in order to accommodate an HIV-infected employee to perform the job duties (GLAD, 2014). He told me that his employer didn’t know about his HIV status and didn’t require any medical examinations. Massachusetts’s law requires a medical examination only to determine whether the employee is having required abilities of performing the essential functions of the job (GLAD,

Could you imagine waking up one and be given a terminal illness, but only to lose your job in the process, because of your illness. HIV back in the 1980- and 90’s was considered a life sentence for people who got the disease and there were no treatment at the time. HIV today is very rare, but treatable for years and people can live normal lives, but with very little research and no treatment people who got HIV did not have a long life span and were alienated in front of their family and friends. A great example of a movie would be Philadelphia; this showed how people with this disease were discriminated against and very little went into helping people with HIV. With little to no government help, this disease was nothing but a death sentence

Exploring perspectives pertaining to health status is challenging and requires a heightened level of sensitivity and education for study researchers. While the researchers in this study did a good job of explaining the informed consent process, they lacked in explaining the photo release form in the detail needed to relay the significance of it to the overall project. Additionally, the researchers would have benefitted from having a group discussion before the start of the project about HIV/AIDS and status disclosure among program participants, to gauge their level of readiness and divide them up as such. However, this photo voice project provided participants with greater opportunities to recognize and bring to the forefront the challenges and discriminations faced daily because of their status and the stigmas associated with

The concept of “stigma” was thoroughly researched and defined by Roura et al., (2009) as “a special kind of relationship between attribute and stereotype” when the attribute is “deeply discrediting”. Although, literature on stigma is approximately 40 years old, it is still widely referenced to introduce the term and discuss its implications. All cultures have shared beliefs and meanings which help them interpret experiences and behavior. Embedded within that system are the “rules” on who is to be stigmatised and who is not. Although these “rules” may differ from culture to culture, stigma is generally thought of as a “negative, moral or judgmental definition of a person or social situation, often connected to discrediting, disgrace, blame, and ascription of responsibility for the condition”. Stigma is not only attached to persons with undesirable physical attributes. Most people are keenly aware that persons with undesirable traits, whether physical, mental or emotional, are easily and quickly stigmatised. In British society, most people will agree that people are overtly stigmatised on the basis of their race, culture, socio-economic status, gender and age. However, the existence of stigma can be more insidious when attached to those with physical and mental illness, disability or physical impairments, or when associated with unattractiveness, promiscuity, child/adult abuse, same-sex orientation, drug use/abuse