Health care team roles

Health care team roles

The physician oversees the treatment strategy and patient evaluation for patients who are HIV-positive and/or have AIDS. Adherence to treatment is a critical aspect of clinical care in AIDS, and nurses play a key role in educating patients and providing them with adherence tools. Nurses, social workers, and psychologists can also be trained as HIV counselors to advise patients about HIV testing and, if necessary, to assist and guide patients in adjusting to a life with HIV. During end-stage AIDS, nurses, social workers, and other hospice workers ensure that patients do not experience unnecessary pain and discomfort.

Prevention

As of 2000, there is no vaccine effective against HIV/AIDS. Several vaccines are being investigated, however, both to prevent initial HIV infection and as a therapeutic treatment to prevent HIV from progressing to full-blown AIDS.

Several types of prevention programs have been found to be effective in reducing sexual transmission of HIV. These include:

• targeted education for at-risk groups, emphasizing preventive practices such as condom use, monogamy, and HIV testing prior to beginning a sexual relationship
• counseling with or without testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases
• education programs in institutions such as the military, prisons, and the workplace
• greater access to condoms

Preventive measures for other modes of transmission include:

• Making clean needles more available and discouraging intravenous drug users from sharing needles.
• Encouraging health care professionals to take all necessary precautions by wearing gloves and masks when handling body fluids.
• Encouraging health care institutions to provide safer medical devices such as self-sheathing needles and retracting and/or needleless intravenous systems.
• Informing individuals who are planning to undergo major surgery that they can donate blood in advance to prevent a risk of infection from a blood transfusion. (However, blood and blood products are carefully monitored.)
• Encouraging testing for HIV infection if there has been suspected exposure to HIV. If HIV infection is confirmed, sexual partners should be informed and, if necessary, receive medical attention.