Forty years ago, as a nurse I witnessed the devastation of HIV. Now I’m determined that we can end the HIV epidemic.
In the 1980s, I worked in hospital wards just like those portrayed in the heartbreakingly brilliant Channel 4 drama, It’s A Sin, seeing patients who’d been given a terminal AIDS diagnosis. These were the early days of my nursing career, and they remain some of my most vivid.
As a nurse, I saw it on the wards and in clinics, in the eyes of patients and on the faces of their families. HIV painfully meant counting the days for those who’d received a diagnosis and was sadly often met with a sense of shame from those around them.
It was one of the most challenging environments to work in. When a virus and patients faced with a diagnosis faced stigma from all corners of society, it took great courage to even speak about it.
Working in an intensive care unit in the USA, I encountered countless brave men who made incredible personal sacrifices to help us gain a better understanding of the virus and improve treatments for others. Amid prejudice at the time, what those patients did then made the advances we see today possible.
Nurses and other health care professionals didn’t always get it right. I remember seeing a consultant wearing two pairs of gloves to take blood pressure and cleaners unwilling to enter rooms where HIV patients were being treated for fear of being exposed to the virus.
As a result, testing for HIV was something to be feared, often wrapped in worry and shame. Even more agonisingly, tests could take weeks and if the result was positive, the limited medication available at the time meant a diagnosis often spelt certain death.
That stigma has been hard to root out. Across society and sadly even within health care, misinformation about HIV still stubbornly persists. But it is something I and the rest of the Royal College of Nursing are determined to play our part in addressing.
This year’s National HIV Testing Week comes at such a crucial time, as the UK fights to end new HIV transmissions by 2030.
Thanks to greater awareness and better understanding of HIV with medical breakthroughs, testing couldn’t be easier. As a nurse, I would encourage people to get tested. Things have changed a lot in the last four decades and today people on treatment can live a normal, healthy life and crucially cannot pass on the virus.
Testing for HIV is no longer something that should be feared, and it can be done in just minutes with a simple test.
We will be proudly celebrating the pioneering work of our members working across sexual health services up and down the country, providing tests in innovative ways in the community. Now you can get a test in your local library, community centre or even shopping centre.
There is also the option to take a self-test at home with a mouth swab. This means receiving a result within minutes. It is important to seek psychological support when testing, perhaps even before taking the test, to help prepare for the result.
Tests are also being expanded across A&E departments in England on an opt-out basis after a hugely successful pilot.
We have the chance to end new cases of HIV in the UK – a truly remarkable possibility and one that no nurse I worked alongside in the 1980s thought possible. The treatment for HIV is in a different league to what was available then, and you don’t need to fear a diagnosis – you can live an active, healthy life.
For forty years nurses have been at the forefront of the HIV response. We will continue to be there for anyone impacted by HIV and to stop the infection from spreading.
In the 1980s, I worked in hospital wards just like those portrayed in the heartbreakingly brilliant Channel 4 drama, It’s A Sin, seeing patients who’d been given a terminal AIDS diagnosis. These were the early days of my nursing career, and they remain some of my most vivid.
As a nurse, I saw it on the wards and in clinics, in the eyes of patients and on the faces of their families. HIV painfully meant counting the days for those who’d received a diagnosis and was sadly often met with a sense of shame from those around them.
It was one of the most challenging environments to work in. When a virus and patients faced with a diagnosis faced stigma from all corners of society, it took great courage to even speak about it.
Working in an intensive care unit in the USA, I encountered countless brave men who made incredible personal sacrifices to help us gain a better understanding of the virus and improve treatments for others. Amid prejudice at the time, what those patients did then made the advances we see today possible.
Nurses and other health care professionals didn’t always get it right. I remember seeing a consultant wearing two pairs of gloves to take blood pressure and cleaners unwilling to enter rooms where HIV patients were being treated for fear of being exposed to the virus.
As a result, testing for HIV was something to be feared, often wrapped in worry and shame. Even more agonisingly, tests could take weeks and if the result was positive, the limited medication available at the time meant a diagnosis often spelt certain death.
That stigma has been hard to root out. Across society and sadly even within health care, misinformation about HIV still stubbornly persists. But it is something I and the rest of the Royal College of Nursing are determined to play our part in addressing.
This year’s National HIV Testing Week comes at such a crucial time, as the UK fights to end new HIV transmissions by 2030.
Thanks to greater awareness and better understanding of HIV with medical breakthroughs, testing couldn’t be easier. As a nurse, I would encourage people to get tested. Things have changed a lot in the last four decades and today people on treatment can live a normal, healthy life and crucially cannot pass on the virus.
Testing for HIV is no longer something that should be feared, and it can be done in just minutes with a simple test.
We will be proudly celebrating the pioneering work of our members working across sexual health services up and down the country, providing tests in innovative ways in the community. Now you can get a test in your local library, community centre or even shopping centre.
There is also the option to take a self-test at home with a mouth swab. This means receiving a result within minutes. It is important to seek psychological support when testing, perhaps even before taking the test, to help prepare for the result.
Tests are also being expanded across A&E departments in England on an opt-out basis after a hugely successful pilot.
We have the chance to end new cases of HIV in the UK – a truly remarkable possibility and one that no nurse I worked alongside in the 1980s thought possible. The treatment for HIV is in a different league to what was available then, and you don’t need to fear a diagnosis – you can live an active, healthy life.
For forty years nurses have been at the forefront of the HIV response. We will continue to be there for anyone impacted by HIV and to stop the infection from spreading.
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