Prevention Strategies for HIV/AIDS in Vulnerable Populations

Running Head: COMMUNITY NURSING
Community Nursing
Name
Institution

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Community Nursing
Despite the recent government along with the civil society endeavours, which has
noticeably enhanced HIV/AIDS-related morbidity and mortality, the increasing persons infected
with HIV/AIDS remains a primary concern for nurses around the world. Yet, after more than two
decades since the endemic started, those populations most vulnerable to HIV/AIDS have not yet
been successfully reached by prevention interventions. Nursing entails working with
communities, as well as populations as equivalent partners plus stressing on principal prevention,
as well as health promotion around the world. Particularly, the roles of nursing entail
partnerships with communities along the populations to deal with health along with social
conditions plus problems such as HIV/AIDS (Leblanc, Burnet, D’Almeida, Lert, Simon &
Crémieux, 2015). Public health endeavours to lower an increase of HIV/AIDS have experienced
a primary move from distinct models for prevention along with the treatment to the present
emphasize on blend prevention approaches that concurrently deal with biomedical, behavioural,
as well as societal levels. Nursing care, especially from the registered nurses (RNs) has been
instrumental in reducing cases of infection to vulnerable populations in the community. Nurses
have continued to play a momentous function in preventing the spread of HIV among the
populations at risk for many decades. Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, nurses have been
in the front position of the response team to assist people to prevent this fatal infection (Gurry,
2015).
During the 21st-century, nurses perform in varied settings that include, but not restricted
to, community nursing centres, school health programs; neighbourhood centres; home health
organizations; and occupational health programs in their efforts to prevent HIV/AIDS infection

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on at-risk populations (Kurth, Celum, Baeten, Vermund & Wasserheit, 2011). Thus, high-risk,
vulnerable populations to HIV infections include frail elderly, destitute persons, inactive persons,
smokers; teenage mothers among other risk populations are targeted by nurses in an endeavour to
decrease new infections of HIV/AIDS. The paper will discuss the different primary prevention
strategies employed by nurses to reduce or eliminate HIV/AIDS infection in at-risk populations.
HIV/AIDS Prevention Strategies used by Nurses
Communication
Communication has been the pillar of prevention of HIV/AIDS among the population at
risk for many decades now used by nursing professionals. The latest paradigm of integration of
prevention approaches that integrates behavioural, biomedical, as well as structural interventions
provides novel prospects for utilizing health communication strategies across the whole variety
of care. These interventions depend mainly on interpersonal communication, particularly person
plus group counselling, both in and further than clinical environments. Nurses are leading in the
promotion of prevention strategies to risk populations to prevent new infections of HIV/AIDS
(Crock, 2017). Some of the nursing roles played by communication entail providing relevant
health information, motivation to help inspire behaviours, which enhance health outcomes, as
well as facilitation of social linkages and helpful social settings for the preferred health
behaviours. In many instances, nurses will promote communication towards the prevention of
HIV/AIDS among vulnerable populations by creating health-seeking behaviour. Hence, nurses
use communication as a tool to motivate the vulnerable population to obstinate from behaviours,
like unsafe sex among the youth and teenagers to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. In addition,

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nurses employ communication approach through several campaigns like social media and other
forums to motivate the people at risk to get tested and get the results so that they may know their
current status. This is critical because they will allow the nurses to communicate and provide the
necessary support to ensure that the risk populations get the necessary care they need to continue
with their current status (Boily, Masse, & Alsallaq, 2012).
In addition, nurses have fundamentally prevented HIV/AIDS among vulnerable
populations through embracing interpersonal communication. Many studies underscore the
significance of interpersonal communication in connection to care via counselling, both in
medical environments and at the homes of the persons at risk of the disease. Many nurses have
continued to craft messages through different communication channels that target to reduce
HIV/AIDS infection. These messages have been effective in ensuring that the populations at risk
get the right information on how to change their risky behaviours that may make the population
become infected with HIV (Kippax & Stephenson, 2012). As in strategies on connection to care,
communication plays a primary role in adherence outcomes via interpersonal communication by
nurse counsellors. The nurse counsellors will usually target the vulnerable populations to new
infections of HIV/AIDS and provide effective messages through counselling in diverse
environments resulting in better management of the endemic. Additionally, nurses have been
using mobile communication technologies in preventing HIV/AIDS that provide a promising
new strategy for promoting the management of HIV/AIDS (Kurth, McClelland, Wanje, 2012).
For example, nurses use mobile telephone messages and social media that have motivational
messages that have been seen to reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS. Specifically, nurses have been
using social media to target the youth to communicate on the dangers of HIV/AIDS and the