Solely responsible for Hepatitis AND HIV

[ChadleyNC]

Ranting still after last night's lecture.

I have to say that I expected more from an instructor. I'm an ADN student who works fulltime. I'm 33 and this is a second carreer choice for me. I've worked in healthcare since I was 16. What I didn't know until last night is that Not only HIV, but Hepatitis (All forms except D and E) are apparently rampant in the gay community and Nowhere else.

I'm a gay man. I have a partner of 4 years. I find this to be quite insulting. The basic gist of this part of the lecture last night was that Hepatitis and HIV are both sexually transmitted amongst GAY MEN only.

No mention that anyone of any other orientation ever has sex or could potentially be at risk. Just me apparently.

I've always subscribed to the idea that what one does to GET a disease is really irrelavant once they have it. In other words, it doesn't matter how you got it, the point is, You HAVE it.

In terms of prevention, I think that education is the number one key to lowering numbers, incidence etc.

But to teach from a perspective, that a disease like hepatitis, or HIV is limited only to specific populations, and to discuss those populations with contempt and a giggle in your tone, is unacceptable to me.

thanks for the space to get this off my chest. With only 11 weeks left in the program, inserting my foot in my mouth would be less than wise. Regardless of how much better it would make me feel to say what I think to her face in front of the whole class. But such is not a possibility.

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I guess that lots of heterosexuals in Africa have died to leave their children orphaned has escaped this nimrod's notice. Or that the fastest growing group of those infected in the US are black and Latin women.

I lost every single gay male friend I had at the beginning of the AIDS pandemic, when it was still called "gay plague." That this jerk doesn't know the difference between a vector and an affected group doesn't surprise me at all. I have not found nursing instructors, frankly, to be capable of avoiding calling correlation causation. Public health specialists they're not.

I had one idiot state, at the beginning of a lecture, that abortion HAS LED to an increase in pedophilia and child abuse.

To quote Kelly Bundy, "The mind wobbles."

[Janus Rising]

That's so sad... we just had our STD/HIV lecture and my instructors made it a very hard point that HIV is actually going down in the gay community because of it's very proactive measures against AIDS and that the straight community has gone up and needs to take a page from the GLTB programs.

[caliotter3]

That subject was covered by an instructor in my school who apparently was gay (I don't recall him ever discussing his preferences in class). He also happened to be the dept chair at the time. His lectures were some of the most detailed, articulate, well-researched, up to date, and relevant that I ever got out of that nrsg program. He also talked about his work with a local volunteer agency for victims in our community which has since ceased to exist d/t downturn in funding. Ever since (and together with having encountered AIDS pts during my clinicals) I have had an interest in working with this population of pts and hope to do so some day. Don't let this ignoramus sour your stomach for long.

[Balder_LPN, LPN]

Hmm, if I recall correctly from my HIV class last summer:

The quickest growing demographics of HIV+ pts are heterosexual women, and children. These groups will soon surpass homosexual males and drug users as the largest infected groups in North America. I will see if I can find the citation for these numbers and post it later.

[ZASHAGALKA, RN]

My program went the other way. This was early 90's mind you. They brought in an 'expert' to suggest that HIV was deliberately introduced by right wing extremists to murder gays. . .

~faith,

Timothy.

[shoegalRN, RN]

I don't know what rock your instructor has been under, but for the last couple of years, the highest growing group of new infected HIV/AIDS cases are HETERSEXUAL women, particularly in the Black community. This is according to the CDC and as a black woman, I can say it is an epidemic in our community. Personally, I feel this is due to misinformation regarding the disease, along with lack of prevention and education about the disease.

Obviously, your instructor has not watched Oparh lately. She did a show on this very same subject showing young, black women mainly who was infected with HIV and how it has affected their lives.