Teaching Experience And Observations On Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Sexually transmitted infections are a very current, modern day health care issue. These infections are passed during unprotected genital, anal or oral sex. There are sometimes symptoms of the various infections however there are some infections that can also be symptom free and therefore can go undetected for quite some time. Young people in the UK typically aged 15-24 have the highest rates of sexually transmitted infections. There is a link between this age group and those living in socioeconomically deprived areas, suggesting these particular regions need better and easier access to healthcare services in order to detect, treat and avoid further spreading and damage caused by the infections. Raising awareness of the causes of each infection and symptoms is vital. The most common types of infections are: Chlamydia, Genital herpes and warts, gonorrhea,

The nurse protected the patient’s privacy and promoted confidentiality by keeping the patients information safe.

Over one million cases of Chlamydia were reported to the CDC in 2013. Despite this large number of reports it actually was a decrease by 1.5% since 2012 (CDC, 2014). Epidemiology statistics showed an increase in reported syphilis, including congenital. Other sexually transmitted diseases can pose higher risks for acquiring HIV. According to new studies, HIV is growing faster in populations that are over 50 versus 40 years and younger (BenRose, 2014). Factors may play a role in this such as higher divorce rates, new medications, and safe sex measures. Therefore, it is important for the healthcare provider screen for sexual activity and any change in sexual partners to provide routine testing when necessary and education on preventive

Wysocki, 2015 estimated that half of all people in the United States will have contracted a sexually transmitted disease in their lifetime. Numerous young women under age 25 haven’t been screened and are asymptotic. Infections impact individuals of all economic levels and backgrounds. Three sexually transmitted diseases are required to be reported by physicians to public health officials. These three are syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia. African American and Latinos have barriers which increase rates of sexually transmitted diseases (Sutton, 2012).

A sexually transmitted infection (STI) borne from the Chlamydia trachomatis bacterium, chlamydia is the most frequently notified disease amongst young Australians, as evident in Figure 6.17. Here, the significant distinction between notification rates of the disease when compared to other STIs is also palpable, as is the 10 – fold prevalence increase of chlamydia, from 104 in 1991 to 1,663 in 2012.

Over 15 million STD’s are contracted in the U.S. each year (Koumans et al., 2005). Over one one-fifth of these cases involve two of the most commonly known STDs: chlamydia and gonorrhea (Koumans et al., 2005) Unfortunately, most of the individuals who get infected with these diseases fall into the age range of 15-24 years old (Koumans et al., 2005). According to Wyatt & Oswalt (2014), almost half of all STD’s contracted each year are by young people ages 15-24 years old. Moreover, the data shows that, “45% of herpes infections, 70% of gonorrhea infections, 63% of chlamydia infections, and 49% of HPV infections occur among youth between the ages of 15-24 years” (Wyatt & Oswalt, 2014). Given that many college students are between the ages of 18-24 years, it is important that schools focus on educating students about the risk of

The possibility of sexually transmitted diseases and infections poses a huge risk to all those who are sexually active. Without proper diagnosis and treatment, STDs and STIs such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, HIV/Aids, and HPV may leave permanent damage to one’s body and increase the likeliness of cervical cancer, infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and more. Planned Parenthood offers extensive testing for patients upon every visit to decrease the spread and damage of any and all diseases. According to Sonfield’s research, “Nearly half of female family planning clients receive chlamydia and gonorrhea tests, and 19% receive an HIV test… Without access to these services, in 2010, an estimated 3.6 million women and men would have forgone chlamydia or gonorrhea testing, which would have resulted in tens of thousands of undetected and untreated STIs. By reducing transmission to partners, these testing services helped prevent an estimated 99,000 chlamydia infections, 16,000 gonorrhea infections and 410 HIV infections that year” (Sonfield). The great amount of transferable diseases requires the counteractive services of Planned Parenthood to provide treatment and prevent the further spread of disease. Patients are offered and encouraged to receive testing to maintain sexual health. In the event of an issue, full treatment options are presented at low or no cost and

In class, we’ve discussed a lot of things during our group discussion. First, we discussed the professional nursing responsibilities of this case. We said that nurses job is to educate the patients so they don’t have to come back; they can’t be judgemental no matter what the situation is; they have to report certain evidences even if the patient doesn't want us to; we can provide the information to the client’s authorities (not just anyone); and we need to look and observe the patient for verbal and nonverbal clues. Second, we discussed the nursing ethical implications for this case. We said that nurses should always respect the patient's decisions; need to provide the same, equal, and quality care for all patients; don’t always make assumptions; take patient’s values to consideration; to ask patients who they are comfortable with visiting them during their stay; always provide all the information to the patient; and remember to keep boundary, know what information to give and what not to give. Then we discussed elements of the nurse patient relationship we think are

Thirdly, If one has an STD and its publicly known, that individual's social status is degraded and negatively affected. In society as a whole concealing an STD creates a false sense of security and attempts to preserve a faulty self image. Along with merely keeping an STD a secret many are too embarrassed to even get tested after unprotected sex with a mentality that what they do not know will not hurt them. This alone has a major sociological implication as it reinforces a negative social construct and creates a poor symbolic representation of STD testing to displeasure rather than emotional relief. In order to influence the proper usage of regular testing after practicing unsafe sex it must be shown that the alternative leads to social distress in that untested individual live their days without knowledge of major health issues where untested STDs cannot be treated causing visual displeasure such as unexplained skin lesions that may influence one to be self conscious progressing to sickness and self

Each of these four cases are issues regarding informed consent. Nurses do not consent the patient for procedures. However, they can assure that the patient understands the procedure. They can support and reiterate what the physician is stating. If there is any hesitancy, the nurse needs to document it and relay the information. The nurse is the patient advocate, so as the physician is explaining and describing the procedure, the nurse needs to be present. If the physician is unaware of the level of education, the nurse needs to communicate the level of education to the physician.

Preventive health is a program that provides services to the public for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as well as family planning services. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) releases statistics and data for STDs annually, and the past three years all have shown increases in STDs. Nurses in the Preventive Health program, practice in an expanded role for nurses which requires extensive training. Syphilis is one of the more complicated issues that a Preventive Health Registered Nurse (PHRN) encounters in the clinic, and it is unfortunate that there is such a high prevalence of syphilis and other STDs in the United States. There is a continuous need to train these nurses for identifying, staging and

Numerous sexual partners enables the chances of contracting an STI, such as Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, or Syphilis, to increase; that being said, statistics indicate that one in every five teens has had four or more sexual partners. Teens of the ages 15 through 19 are among the highest rates of the population infected with the previously mentioned sexually transmitted diseases. Teens engaging in sexual activity are often exposed to diseases without full understanding of the ease that these infections can be transmitted; students need to be exposed to the severe consequences in order to promote more cautious future decisions, like the amount of sexual encounters. Many young males and females never acquire information on the numerous sexually transmitted infections that they could catch and distribute nor how to prevent or treat such diseases. The statistics of high school students that document receiving counseling on STDs and STD testing at a routine checkup with their doctor meets low expectations, recording at 42.8 percent for females and only 26.4 percent for males. The high rates of infected teens could be directly related to the lack of knowledge they receive on the possible diseases that can be distributed through sex. Without proper knowledge on sexually transmitted diseases, the

In Australia even though safe and effective treatments are available for many sexually transmitted infections (STI), there has been a steady increase in cases of gonorrhoea, chlamydia and syphilis in the last five years.

The more frequent occurrence of STDs in the younger generations are also based upon the multiple barriers in retrieving the benefits in STD prevention services which includes the lack of health insurance or inability to pay, no transportation, embarrassment of the services in the facilities, and worries of discretion. (STDs) According to the US Department of Health and Human Service, twenty five percent of sexually active adolescents have already obtained an STD. (Parillo) The severity of the issue is approached with the control strategies and educational strategies. In which these educational strategies are more effective when it involves a big health educational program that is provided to our minors. The young populations that are particularly affected by STDs are the young women with a low income for it is easier for a female to receive an STD compared to men. And with those women having a low income, they are not able to access the services that are being provided to them. Today, four in ten sexually active adolescent girls have obtained an STD that can cause infertility and death; also two thirds of adolescent boys have HIV diagnoses.

The night before the clinical, I have tried my best to learn as much as I can about the nurse’s role in the care of pediatric patient in a public health setting; immunization, patient interaction, and patient education. So, after learning that I would spend most of my day at the women’s health clinic, particularly at the sexually transmittable disease unit, I was disappointed. However, as the day went along and after observing the first patient testing procedure, this clinical assignment does not seem so bad after all. I have observed four different sexually transmitted disease cases, each one different from the other, but every patient seemed to have similarities in terms of their risks taking behaviors. Indeed, it was interesting to note that some patient are repeatedly seen at the clinic, without any alteration to that kind of behavior. Moreover, the patient seen at the clinic that day, coming from a very diverse demographic, engaging in activities that detrimental