Community/Public Health Nursing 6th Edition by Mary Nies ,Melanie McEwen

Exercise 11

Ortiz (2005) examined the experiences of 19 Latinas who disclosed they were living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). She described how the women decided to disclose their HIV status to partners, family members, friends, and employers. Four categories emerged: timing of the disclosure, the need to disclose, controlling disclosure, and supportive disclosing. These factors were influenced by the Latinas' relationship with others, the perceived risks to the women and others, the need to disclose, the wish to give support to themselves or others, and the desire to control who should know and when. Ortiz concluded that nurses should be knowledgeable of the realities of Latinas' lives and to be able to incorporate that knowledge into comprehensive care plans that will help them maximize the utilization of appropriate resources.