Reflective Writing: HIV and Nursing Responsibilities

This reflective writing assignment details a student's personal experience involving their sister's hospitalization due to HIV and domestic violence. The assignment explores the student's observations of the medical team's response, including the blood collection process and the senior nurse's role in patient care and emotional support. It highlights the importance of adhering to safety guidelines, the impact of negligence, and the role of government interventions in HIV prevention, including primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention models. The student reflects on the social awareness of infectious diseases, their responsibility in educating their sister, and their future research goals to increase awareness and improve patient outcomes. The reflection also discusses the importance of accountability in nursing, the effectiveness of anti-retroviral treatment, and the need for continued awareness to reduce the number of HIV patients.

Running head:HIV: NURSING REFLECTION
HIV: NURSING REFLECTION
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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HIV: NURSING REFLECTION
The reflective writing will be based on my experience, I encounter when my sister got
admitted into the hospital with an incident of domestic violence. The incident will shed light
on both the responsibility, challenges, government interventions, and the social, cultural
aspects of infectious diseases in the country.
Three years ago, my sister had just been married, and suddenly, one day, I got a call
from the hospital stating my sister being admitted to the hospital with severe illness. She was
diagnosed with having had high stubborn fever and diarrhea for the last few days. The patient
also lost massive weight in the previous few weeks. She seemed very tired, as she was unable
to sit in the regular check-up room, and her eyes were shutting down due to fatigue. The
doctors had analyzed her symptoms and understood that she might be suffering from any
infectious disease. The nurses immediately checked her blood pressure and fever. An urgent
blood test for infections was needed to understand the type of infection and its severity. I
observed that an immediate meeting was conducted by the medical team to conjure the
pathology team and make them arrange a blood test for her. While the team started with their
protocol, I noticed that the pathology team proceed with the blood collection without using
gloves. The blood report stated that my sister was positive with the human immune virus
(HIV +). The medical team was immediately informed about my sister’s degrading condition.
My sister was devastated to know that she is HIV positive and refused to undergo any further
treatment, as she thought that her death was evident. (Maartens, Celum and Lewin 2014).
However, the senior nurse consoled and convinced her to undergo treatment. She was
immediately transferred to the HIV division of the hospital. A weekly routine blood test was
designed and including CBC, CD4, Chemistry panel, and viral role to measure her health
condition (Santoso et al. 2015).
Eventually, the background of my sister was stated. It came to the knowledge that she
was severely tortured at her home and started using drugs to escape the pain. It also was

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revealed that she was sharing a needle with a group of people to get drug injection for a while
(Pasa et al. 2016). It was prevalent and almost a culture among the drug taker people to share
personal stuff. Dealing with my own sister’s case, I came to know many of the aspects of
today’s world and how much low social awareness of the infectious disease is being
portrayed amongst the population. It was my responsibility to make her aware of the disease
and convey her about the basic information about HIV and her condition. The doctor’s team
was also found to monitor her improvement concerning her medical and emotional conditions
like tolerance level (MacDougall 2015).
Health care team need to be very responsible for the blood collection; blood test and
patient care and it is mandatorily to use mask, apron, and gloves, to avoid any kind of
transmissible disease (Who.int 2020). The pathology team in my sister’s case was found to
violate the guidelines by not using gloves during blood collection. Negligence, as such, can
lead to an outburst of infectious disease, also strengthening the risk of the blood collector to
get infected by HIV. The accountability, an NMBA standard in the nursing term, refers to
appropriate communication between the nurse and his patient. The nurse needs to make the
patient understand the situation, take quick action, and make an appropriate decision. The
standard of accountability was observed to be maintained by the senior nurse as she was
successful in making my sister calm down and relax by talking to her and counseling her. She
also encouraged me to educate my sister, ensuring her quick recovery as well as maintaining
the standard of NMBA (nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au 2020, Ball 2017).
By the experience, I got to know that The government of Australia is very strict about
the prevention of AIDS. There are different levels of prevention models, including primary
prevention, secondary prevention, and tertiary prevention. PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is
a modern primary prevention way, where people with high HIV risk are administrated with
pills to prevent HIV infection. However, other sexually transmitted infection does not get

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prevented by the process. PEP or post-exposure prophylaxis is a prevention method
applicable until 72 hours of exposure to HIV (afao.org.au 2020). There are other prevention
plans like safe drug use, treatment as prevention( TasP), which prevent transmission from
infected partners are there (afao.org.au 2020). The anti-retrovirus treatment (ART) can be
considered as a holistic approach of life for him (World Health Organization 2016, World Health
Organization 2015). It has been a proven fact that the cure of the disease is not possible,
though the treatment plan can help the patient with advance HIV to live a longer and better
life. Our initiative might help in creating awareness on a broader platform. Post this incident,
I being a biomedical student made it my aim to do independent research on HIV, so that the
number of patients who have HIV due to lack of awareness might reduce and that patients
may revive better in future.s

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References:
afao.org.au (2020). PEP - Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations. [online] Australian
Federation of AIDS Organisations. Available at: https://www.afao.org.au/about-hiv/hiv-
prevention/pep/ [Accessed 3 Mar. 2020].
Ball, L. (2017). Improving processes that underpin Australian primary health care. Australian
Journal of Primary Health, 23(1), p.i.
Maartens, G., Celum, C. and Lewin, S.R., 2014. HIV infection: epidemiology, pathogenesis,
treatment, and prevention. The Lancet, 384(9939), pp.258-271.
MacDougall, C., 2015. Understanding and acting on health inequities. Psychosocial
Dimensions of Medicine, p.179.
nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au (2020). Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia -
Framework for assessing standards for practice for registered nurses, enrolled nurses and
midwives. [online] Nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au. Available at:
https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Frameworks/
Framework-for-assessing-national-competency-standards.aspx [Accessed 3 Mar. 2020].
Pasa, M.K., Alom, K.R., Bashri, Z. and Vermund, S.H., 2016. Sharing of needles and
syringes among men who inject drugs: HIV risk in Northwest Bangladesh. PloS one, 11(2).
Santoso, F., Suwiyoga, K. and Putra, I.G.M., 2015. CD4 Percentage and Absolute CD4
Accuracy not Different in Predicting Viral Load of HIVInfected Mothers. Indonesian
Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Who.int (2020). Home. [online] Who.int. Available at: https://www.who.int/ [Accessed 3
Mar. 2020].

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World Health Organization, 2015. Guideline on when to start antiretroviral therapy and on
pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV. World Health Organization.
World Health Organization, 2016. Consolidated guidelines on the use of antiretroviral drugs
for treating and preventing HIV infection: recommendations for a public health approach.
World Health Organization.