Healthcare staff may claim they have a ‘right to know’ a patient’s HIV status to ‘protect themselves or others from infection’. There is no legal ‘right’ for a health professional to know a person’s medical diagnosis. Further, it is well established that the consistent use of Standard Precautions is the best way to protect staff …
Disclosure of HIV status within health care and the ‘right to know’ Read More »
The principle of confidentiality is closely related to the concept of privacy and is both a legal and an ethical requirement (3). While laws about confidentiality and ethical obligations apply to people with all health conditions, confidentiality in HIV nursing and midwifery has acquired a greater significance, highlighting pre-existing weaknesses within the healthcare system. Ethical …
Informed consent is a central ethical and legal principle in the provision of health care, including nursing and midwifery care. The requirement to obtain informed consent applies to all health interventions with certain well-defined exceptions (such as life-threatening situations) (2). The requirement for consent to be ‘informed’ is justified on the ethical grounds of: avoiding …
Nurses can promote the rights of PLHIV by encouraging and supporting them to plan for their future care needs and treatment wishes, especially regarding end-of-life care and quality of life. The meaning of ‘quality of life’ is personal and unique to everyone, encompassing physical, psychological, and social domains. It is now included as a goal …
Quality of life, advance care planning and end-of-life decision-making Read More »
Nurses are increasingly involved in biomedical HIV prevention including the provision of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). PrEP is the use of antiretroviral drugs taken by HIV-negative people to prevent HIV infection (see PrEP for Prevention and Biomedical prevention add link section of this resource). As with any clinical innovation, the ethical implications of PrEP are important …
Emerging issues and their ethical implications – Pre Exposure Prophylaxis Read More »
A 32-year-old man was diagnosed with HIV infection 9 months ago, after presenting to a sexual health clinic for a routine sexual health screen. He attends the nursing clinic for HIV monitoring and has an undetectable viral load. You update his health history and note he is taking antiretroviral medication. You also take a sexual health …
Ethics is at the heart of HIV nursing and midwifery, and both professions have been at the forefront of ethical practice since the start of the epidemic (50-52). Nurses and midwives must be educationally prepared and capable of contributing to and making sound moral decisions based on evidence and careful ethical deliberation. There is a …
Johnstone M-J. and Crock E. Chapter 10: Dealing with ethical issues in nursing practice. In: Chang E, Daly J, eds. Transitions in Nursing: preparing for professional practice. 5th ed. Sydney: Elsevier; 2019. Beauchamp TL, Childress JF. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 8th ed. New York: Oxford University Press; 2019. Johnstone M. Bioethics: a nursing perspective. 8th …
Danielle Collins: HIV nurse practitioner, Victorian HIV Service, Infectious Diseases Department, Alfred Hospital Acknowledgement: Emily Wheeler: Australasian Society for HIV, Viral Hepatitis and Sexual Health Medicine (ASHM) co-authored the first edition of this section. Nurses have been involved in varying capacities in supporting people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) since the beginning of the HIV epidemic in the 1980s. …
Nurses, alongside doctors, allied health professionals and peer workers, working at the forefront of HIV care in Australia in the early years of the epidemic, faced a highly politicised and stigmatising landscape given the nature of the illness and the already marginalised affected population. (1) With no precedents, the HIV nursing models that emerged were …