The Importance of Common Good in Nursing

Question:

Write about the Global Issue for HIV Stigma Mechanism.

There are different challenges facing the world, they range from natural calamities to man made. These challenges affect a large percentage of the world population. In this paper I am going to cover HIV & Aids as a global challenge where shared responsibility is realized and propose the solution to this global challenge.

Common good has been defined as benefit that goes beyond individual benefit to the community benefit (Whiteford& Manderson, 2009). In the field of nursing, we are frequently trapped in dilemma cases, where the appropriate decisions may be not accepted by the client. Some decisions made are beneficial to both the client and the community surrounding him/her. These decisions may curb the spread of certain infections hence reducing the health risk the community may face. In other cases, these decision help the individual in sustaining their health conditions and prolong their lifespan if they suffer from diseases with no cure.

HIV & Aids is the greatest health crisis the world is facing in the health sector today. The infection leads to weakening of the white blood cells, hence opening the body to dangers of other opportunistic infections (Nyblade, Stangl, & Ashburn, 2009). According the World Health Organization (WHO) report 2017 there are seventy million people who have been infected with HIV since the time it was discovered, out of the number infected, thirty five million people have died due to these infections.

The discovery of the antiretroviral drugs gave a great relief to patients suffering from the infection. This helped in the prolonging of their life span. There is no cure that has been discovered to this viral infection. The world Health Organization considers health to be a global shared responsibility.

Once someone has been discovered to be infected with the virus, there is a prescription for a lifetime medication. Taking of the antiretroviral has faced many obstacles. Patients who have been found to be infected reject the treatment due to the stigmatization in the community (Mahajan et al., 2008). A considerable percentage of people suffering from HIV & Aids do not take the medication. The nurses find a challenge in advising these people to save their life by taking the drug because it is up to the patient to choose the treatment or turn it down.

Scientist had all their efforts toward making the world a better place for humanity. There has been great attention to the discovery of a drug that can help control the spread of the HIV virus or cure the condition (Earnshaw, & Chaudoir, 2009). This showed little success by the discovery of Antiretroviral drugs which help in the prolonging of the patients lifespan. There are various strategies that can be employed to contain the virus. These strategies can be applied in an angle to benefit both the community from the risk of the spread of the deadly infection and the individual from the dangers of death due to the opportunistic diseases.

First, it education to the society: The communities need to be educated on the mode of transmission of the virus, the ways of prevention, and how to live with the infection (HIV, 2012). These programs can be employed through the media since it is the most appropriate platform to reach both the old and the young in the community. There can also be the employment of seminars to sensitize the community on HIV & AIDs. This is where educated members of the community are invited to educate the society on various aspect of HIV. This will help in the dissemination of knowledge to the community. Once the community has been educated, there will be ease in controlling the spread of the virus.

Provision of alternative treatment other than the daily pills: The daily pills are sometimes viewed as way of exposing people infected with HIV to the community. Many people suffering from the virus prefer an alternative though none has been provided. The scientist should work to the development of alternative drug which can be taken on longer intervals other than being taken on daily basis (Jairath et al., 2006). This can help in the reduction of the pills one has to take daily and keeping of the time schedule for the drug. There is high probability that this will be positively received by the persons infected by the virus because it will relieve them the burden of carrying ARVs to the work place.

Changing people’s attitude towards people infected with HIV: It is clear that if someone is not infected by HIV he or she is affected. The society has a large population of people suffering from HIV. These persons are from certain families and have spouses. The relatives and spouses to the infected persons are affected in a certain ways. The people suffering from HIV & Aids face stigmatization and are abandoned in the community leading to the refusal of medication by persons suffering from the infection (Pulerwitz et al., 2010). A program to sensitize the community on living with infected people should be developed. When the society has been educated and their perspective toward persons suffering from HIV and Aids changed, there will be no shame to these patients hence they will not shy away from taking the medications.

Provision of moral and dietary support to those infected by the virus: It is prescribed that a person suffering from the HIV and Aids should have a balanced diet to boast their health condition. Persons’ suffering from the virus lack moral support from their spouses and their relatives making them feel out of place. In most cases these persons come from poor background and lack the daily prescribed diet (Sengupta et al., 2011). The community should support these individuals morally and spiritually to make them feel part of the society.

Mobilization of people to know their status: There should be a program to mobilize everybody to be tested on HIV status. Once they know their status, one can be able to organize their life appropriately and effectively. This can be done by the introduction of home based HIV test kits or test camps where persons can visit to be tested. Once someone knows that they are infected they will choose to obey the doctor’s prescription.

Conclusion

The global challenges can be easily resolved if the society accept them as a shared responsibility and enormously focus towards reaching the possible solution. The Aids epidemic in the world can be solved by ensuring there is no victimization of the persons infected with the virus. The society should love, accept and support persons infected or affected by HIV & Aids in all ways possible. This will ensure a great success in the fight against the epidemic.

References

Earnshaw, V. A., & Chaudoir, S. R. (2009). From conceptualizing to measuring HIV stigma: a review of HIV stigma mechanism measures. AIDS and Behavior, 13(6), 1160.

HIV, C. (2012). Monitoring selected national HIV prevention and care objectives by using HIV surveillance data—United States and 6 US dependent areas—2010.

Jairath, N., Donley, R., Shelton, D., McMullen, P., & Grandjean, C. (2006). Nursing and the Common Good: A Clearer Definition of the Concept Could Be Helpful to All the Healing Professions. Health Progress, 87(6), 59-63.

Mahajan, A. P., Sayles, J. N., Patel, V. A., Remien, R. H., Ortiz, D., Szekeres, G., & Coates, T. J. (2008). Stigma in the HIV/AIDS epidemic: a review of the literature and recommendations for the way forward. AIDS (London, England), 22(Suppl 2), S67.

 Nyblade, L., Stangl, A., Weiss, E., & Ashburn, K. (2009). Combating HIV stigma in health care settings: what works?. Journal of the international AIDS Society, 12(1), 15.

Pulerwitz, J., Michaelis, A., Weiss, E., Brown, L., & Mahendra, V. (2010). Reducing HIV-related stigma: lessons learned from Horizons research and programs. Public Health Reports, 125(2), 272-281.

Sengupta, S., Banks, B., Jonas, D., Miles, M. S., & Smith, G. C. (2011). HIV interventions to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma: a systematic review. AIDS and Behavior, 15(6), 1075-1087.

Whiteford, L. M., & Manderson, L. (Eds.). (2009). Global health policy, local realities: The fallacy of the level playing field. Lynne Rienner Publishers.