HIV secret November 8, 2014

This blog is about an ethical problem concerning a nurse and one of her friend, a man with HIV. The patient was diagnosed with HIV few months before she met him, he was not on medication (antri-retro-viral) and was taught about the precautions that he needed to take for himself and for her partner. The guy was a friend of the nurse so she knew that the guy's relationship with his girl was new. The nurse asked the patient to be honest and say if he was using condom everytime he was having a sexual intercourse. He hesitated to answer and finally admitted her that no he wasn't always using one because it wasn't providing him a lot of pleasure. And the nurse asked the guy if his girlfriend knew about him condition, he said that he did told her once but she never asked anything again.
In this case the patient's values are different from my values and I assume from the nurse's one too. I would keep all the precautions about HIV. And I think what he should have done was to ask her girlfriend if it is fine that he doesn't put condoms even if he has HIV and then he would have let the girl decide because maybe she had forgotten that info or she just wouldn't mind him having this disease.  I think I would have hard time dealing with a patient like this (MORALLY) because he is not helping himself nor helping others. I believe he has the responsibility to tell it to his girlfriend or at least reminding her in case she forgot. But at least, he was being honest with the nurse. If I would have a patient like him, I would  still need to respect his values and I would have to treat him with respect (moral imperative). Because It is part of the CNA codes that want us to promote and and respect informed decision making but there will also have to be some coercion because we don't want something bad to happen to the patient's girlfriend there we may be limiting the patient's choice and freedom but it will be done to bring the greater good for the greatest amount of people. 
From this experience that the nurse had to deal with, I learned that the patients we are providing care to are not always helping for themselves or others and teaching is crucial for this type of situation. 

Qais khedri 
Nursing ethics