Roles of Nurses in Preventing HIV/AIDS Exposure

RUNNING HEAD: HIV/AIDS 1
HIV/ AIDS Exposure
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HIV/AIDS 2
Introduction
PLWHA often pose a risk of infecting others in their immediate environment. Nurses are
charged with the responsibility of protecting the population at risk of infection. Nurses therefore
need to exercise extra caution when handling PLWHA so as to prevent them from infecting other
people. among the roles and responsibilities that nurses have in preventing exposure include
routine hygiene practices, providing advice on healthy and safe living to people who are at risk,
blood screening before transfusion, administering PREP and ARV drugs when necessary and
exercising safety at the hospital to minimize chances of infection (Mutch, Lui, Dean, Mao,
Lemoire, Debattista, & Fitzgerald, 2017).
There are various roles that nurses are supposed to carry out in and out of the hospital to
prevent exposure to HIV to those people who are at risk of infection. According to Pickles, King,
& de Lacey, (2017). People who are at risk of infection include sex workers, injection drug users,
men who have sex with other men and discordant couples. There are also various behaviors and
activities that increase the threat of contracting the disease. Relatives and friends of PLWHA are
at risk of contracting the disease, as well as their immediate care providers through sharing skin
piercing and cutting instruments as well as unprotected sexual intercourse. This paper focuses on
the roles nurses play in prevention of exposure to HIV among people who are at risk.
Social determinants of health and primary healthcare
The social determinants of health according to World Health Organization. (2016) refers
to the conditions that people are born, grow and work in that has the potential to influence their
health. These conditions are influenced by wealth, class, education, social status, profession,

HIV/AIDS 3
distribution of resources and power relations. Across the world, social determinants of health
continue to influence health in various ways. As a matter of fact, the definition of health is itself
influenced by these factors whereby a majority of poor people view health as the absence of
disease whereas the wealthy will look at it in a more comprehensive approach as the physical,
mental and spiritual wellbeing. These glaring differences also influence the way different people
respond to diseases as well as handling of patients most especially with a disease such as HIV
that is surrounded with stigma and often with some misconceptions as well.
According to Marmot, (2018) social determinants of health has also influenced the
exposure and spread of HIV among people. Research shows that HIV prevalence rates are high
in third world and developing countries. These high prevalence rates can be associated with high
poverty levels, dependency, and poor governance among other characteristic factors of these
countries. This shows that hospital management and government also have a role to play to
prevent the spread of this contagious diseases. The high dependency on foreign aid has plunged
the country in economic distress where they fail to allocate enough funds to the health sector for
the effective control and management of HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Poverty is a factor that affects other social factors such as education and income. The
level of education is an important social factor in the prevention of exposure to HIV. This is
because educated individuals do not fall victim of poor cultural practices such as traditional
circumcision practices that largely involve sharing of blades exercising very little caution.
Educated people also do not fall victim of primitive cultural practices such as wife inheritance
that allow people to have multiple sexual partners. Contrary to this, education has empowered
people to actually abstain from such practices as well as exercise caution whenever there is dire
need to engage in such activities.