Stories
Positive in caring, empathy and HIV
13/11/2024
This is Bev’s story published in PosLink+ Quarterly (October 2024), Positive Workplaces and Your Right to Safety. Poslink+ Quarterly is the digital magazine from Living Positive Victoria (LPV). Bev’s story is republished here with the kind permission of LPV.
Positive Workplaces and Your Right to Safety: Modern workplaces have long been concerned with the safety and wellbeing of employees. But what does this mean when it comes to HIV? In this issue of PosLink+ Quarterly, positive writers share their experiences. One of these writers is PWV member Bev who is a nurse living with HIV.
People living with HIV often contact the HIV/AIDS Legal Centre (HALC) with employment-related concerns linked to their HIV status. They may have uncertainties about how to answer questions about health and medical conditions, whether they are legally required to disclose their HIV status, or if HIV precludes them from certain job opportunities.
Positive in caring, empathy and HIV
By Bev, an HIV+ nurse
As a child I was brought up to be seen and not heard. Our family moved around NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, which made it difficult to make friends. I remember being extremely embarrassed to read aloud to the class at school and would easily blush until I joined the Scouting movement. Being a scout gave me the pathways to mature into a confident teenager (in year 12 I became school captain) and adult until I found my calling as a nurse.
My nursing career began in 1979 and for the first year, it was compulsory to live at the Nurse’s Home on the grounds of the hospital which was an adventure. We could see the neon Skipping Girl sign from our dormitory windows in the 3-storey building. Nursing training was tough having lived at home up until then. An introduction to shift work, uniforms, starched hats and nursing hierarchy (standing to attention during a meal if the matron walked into the dining room) were all part of the rigorous training. My compassion and drive to care for patients and their loved ones confirmed that I had made the right career choice. For the past 45 years, my work has included paediatrics, school camps, rehabilitation, orthopaedics, pathology, doctors’ practices, diabetes education, aged care and later, the COVID-19 response. Aged care is my niche. I have respect and empathy for the elderly and enjoy hearing about their life experiences and stories.
As a medical professional I was extremely naive about HIV, pathology norms, treatment and my legal obligations working as a nurse.
I was diagnosed with HIV following a holiday romance with a friend of 30 years down the east coast of Australia. My seroconversion was flu-like symptoms and a ghastly sore throat. A doctor I
visited in Coolum did not ask about unprotected sex and prescribed antibiotics and symptomatic treatment. It was only following a blood donation that I was told they had found an anomaly. When I arrived at the blood bank I was taken to a room and seated, with me on one side of a table and two ladies on the other. I was totally speechless, shocked and surprised. As a medical professional I was extremely naive about HIV, pathology norms, treatment and my legal obligations working as a nurse. My mind raced overtime with worry and panic seared through me. Could I lose my job? Would anybody employ me if they knew my HIV status? I thought: work cannot find out and this must be my secret.
An urgent referral into specialist HIV services was required. I wanted to navigate out of my local healthcare network region and I was referred to a wonderful and understanding professor at the Alfred hospital. In addition to healthcare services, I was referred to the Department of Health and Ageing due to HIV being a communicable reportable disease, blood borne virus which poses a threat to public health. Interrogation by the public notification officers of any past sexual partners was not pleasant, and each had to be notified anonymously.
Now I was in a quandary about disclosing my status at work. Did I need to disclose for the safety of my patients? Around that time, I had a terrible experience at the dentist. On arrival I was asked to complete the new patient medical history. Do I have HIV? I was unaware of my legal option that I did not need to disclose my HIV status, and ticked yes. I proceeded to a treatment room, sat in the chair and my dental bib was ceremoniously placed. Ten minutes later the dentist arrived with my questionnaire, only to announce, ‘in fact we won’t have time to see you today.’ I was escorted out of the chair and off the premises. Absolutely flabbergasted at how I was treated, I recoiled within and vowed never to be honest about my HIV status again. For ten years post diagnosis, I did not disclose to anyone, living in a world where I would scream only inside my head.
Like a sponge, I absorbed knowledge about living with HIV. My understanding of legal obligations as a healthcare provider improved as I sought further information from my treating professor and peak bodies. I learned that health practitioners living with HIV who perform exposure-prone procedures (like surgery in open wounds with exposure to patient’s tissue and blood) need only to abide by the Communicable Diseases Network Australia Guidelines. These guidelines include regular pathology and having an undetectable viral load.
I could not function; constant headaches, insomnia, permanent indigestion, inability to concentrate and day-to-day living was a challenge
The COVID-19 pandemic added a challenge to my nursing career when I was deployed from community health into drive through testing. I felt there was no regard for my HIV status (being immunocompromised) when we had little insight into any consequence of the virus. Finally, I was to coordinate a COVID-19 vaccination clinic. I was confronted daily by people’s emotions when they did not meet eligible criteria or their workplace required mandatory vaccination. I felt intimidated with a fire burning within me as I was sent to work at the coalface of the pandemic, with no regard for my personal health as managers worked from home. COVID-19 burnout struck as anxiety and depression tore through my body and mind. I could not function; constant headaches, insomnia, permanent indigestion, inability to concentrate and day-to-day living was a challenge until I retreated, left work and sought professional treatment. I continue to have regular appointments with my General Practitioner and Psychologist.
Overall, in most aspects of my career, I have enjoyed caring and listening to others with empathy and a genuine love of their wellbeing. I now advocate for others during their HIV journey by volunteering with Living Positive Victoria and held a board position with Positive Women Victoria for two years. I have been a member of the Positive Speakers Bureau, helping to educate the broader community, wrote and delivered a speech at the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, delivered a body mapping of annual health issues with the Well Beyond 50 group, assisted in the facilitation of Phoenix workshops and proud to be able to share my recent qualification of counsellor and art therapist.
How do we know as medical professionals that any patient that walks through the door has HIV or any other blood borne virus? Do you know the HIV status of your health professionals? We don’t and nor should we need to. All patients no matter their medical history should be treated equally. I am now 64 years old, and I continue to live and age well with HIV.
