In December 2012, Xander (not his real name) was tested HIV-positive. And he recalled that during one of his visits to his treatment hub in Metro Manila, “there was this one nurse who told me: ‘Now you’re HIV-positive; stop having sex and stop increasing your numbers’,” he said, adding that it was never clear to him “how to react when healthcare providers themselves stigmatize and discriminate.”
But HIV-related stigma and discrimination among healthcare providers – e.g. nurses – has been studied before, even if, according to Dr. Juan Leyva (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona), Dr. Patrick Palmieri (Universidad Norbert Wiener and A.T. Still University), and Dr. Joan Edwards (Texas Woman’s University), this issue has not been frequently re-visited.
This is why they looked at this issue again; though this time, focusing on nursing faculty and students, believing that teaching about HIV-related stigma and discrimination may actually start in nursing schools. Particularly, they did a cross-sectional study of nursing faculty in six countries that appeared in The Open AIDS Journal.
According to them, “since the earliest study about nursing faculty and students attitudes and beliefs about caring for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) in the early 1990’s, there have only been 17 additional studies.” And so “knowledge in this area of study is still lacking to fill some gaps in understanding attitudes towards people living with the disease.”
The researchers sought to understand HIV-related attitudes of nursing faculty in three continents from six countries (Canada, Colombia, England, Peru, Spain, and the US) and how it correlates to three dimensions of prejudice, stereotypes and discrimination.
The researchers found that HIV-related stigma about caring for PLHIV are slightly positive with notable differences between countries. Apart from Peru, and to a lesser extent neighboring Colombia, the results are consistent with other findings from a few smaller studies. The results can be explained, among other reasons, by the high HIV-related stigma in South America and the pervasive discrimination experienced by the LGBTQ community. Although myths and knowledge deficits about HIV/AIDS remain problematic, the results appear to be influenced by nationality in terms of prejudices, stereotypes, and discrimination.
Faculty attitudes about caring for PLHIV can impact student attitudes and the care they provide. According to Dr. Palmieri, “nursing faculty attitudes can become part of an informal curriculum where implicit learning is impregnated with personal values.”
The researchers note that in terms of HIV/AIDS education, faculty might not be comfortable teaching what they do not understand. The researchers conclude that theory-derived, evidence-informed interventions need to be developed to advance the knowledge and attitudes of nursing faculty about caring for people living with HIV. The researchers plan to attempt to address negative attitudes with a stigma-reduction intervention based on the information from similar studies.
For the likes of Xander, “healthcare providers need to be more sensitive to the plight of PLHIV. Otherwise, they become part of the problem, not the solution.”
