hiv care - specialist or generic care?

[pej11uk]

any thought about the following?

1. should HIV care be a specialist or generic care? why? would it not be discriminatory to non-hiv patients admitted in the same unit? what is so "special" about HIV care that it is currently a "specialist care"? will it not de-stigmatise the "illness" if hiv patients are care for in general wards?

2. will nurses on general wards be more burdened in caring for HIV patients because they need to dispense medications which is usually fitted to the patient's lifestyle? if nurses insist on ward's usual medication times, will affect the compliance/adherence of patients to their treatment regimes?

thanks.

[live4today, RN]

Hello pej14

Good questions! The unit I work on gets HIV patients, and they are on a slew of meds that should require more specialized care from the staff treating them than just "generic care". I liken the care of an HIV/AIDS patient to a specialty like Cardiac, Pulmonary, CCU, Renal, Neuro, etc.

It would certainly help the patients afflicted with this illness to receive more specialized care from staff who were more familiar with the progression of their disease process, the medications and side affects of those meds, and the emotional/mental depression associated with a disease process that will require more intervention from a "lifestyle change" method of treatment for those patients.

I've worked with many HIV and AIDS patients in my nursing career, and I could easily see that focus of nursing as a specialty. The care they need requires more than one can possibly imagine.

[pej11uk]

thanks for your thoughts on the above matter. it is very much appreciated. hope you don't get tired caring for HIV patients - i'm currently in HIV care as well.

[live4today, RN]

They are really no more of a challenge to care for than many of the patients I'm being assigned to each day anyway. For whatever reason, most patients these days come with additional sicknesses on top of the major one they are hospitalized with in the first place. Not to mention their state of mind which often leaves nothing to the imagination.