Experiences of Professional Nurses Rendering HIV Healthcare Services to LGBTIQ+ People in Gauteng Province, South Africa



Desirée Morakane Mulemfo1, *, Azwihangwisi Helen Mavhandu-Mudzusi1
1 Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa, Preller Street, Muckleneuk Ridge Pretoria, South Africa

Abstract

Background

Access to HIV services by LGBTIQ+ individuals is the key to the Agenda for Zero Discrimination in Health-Care settings. As the key drivers of HIV health care services in government/public settings are professional nurses, there is a need to understand their preparedness for rendering services to LGBTIQ+ individuals who can be considered as dual marginalized because of HIV status and being gender or sexual non-binary. However, there is a scarcity of studies focusing on the preparedness of health care providers in rendering HIV services to LGBTIQ+ individuals.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the professional nurses’ preparedness in rendering HIV Healthcare Services to LGBTIQ+ People at public primary healthcare clinics in Gauteng.

Method

This qualitative study followed an interpretative phenomenological analysis design. In-depth semi structured interviews were conducted with nine participants recruited through snowball sampling. The sample size was determined by data saturation. Data were transcribed verbatim and thematically analyzed guided by the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis framework for qualitative data analysis.

Results

Findings indicate that professional nurses lack information regarding LGBTIQ+ communities. Furthermore, they have limited knowledge and skills for preventing and managing HIV in these communities. This is because of a lack of formal training about LGBTIQ+ people’s unique HIV conditions, specific socio-medical interventions, and necessary preventive materials.

Conclusion

Lack of formal preparation of professional nurses regarding LGBTIQ+ individuals and their health care needs will hinder the achievements of the desired zero new HIV infections and zero HIV-related death. The researchers thus recommend the inclusion of LGBTIQ+ communities and their healthcare needs in the Nursing curriculum and upscaling nurses to render LGBTIQ+ friendly healthcare services.

Keywords : HIV healthcare services, Inequalities, Interpretative phenomenological analysis, LGBTIQ+ health, Preparedness, Primary healthcare, Professional nurses.

Abstract Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2022
Volume: 16
DOI: 10.2174/18744346-v16-e221129-2022-48

Article History:

Electronic publication date: 29/11/2022
Collection year: 2022

© 2022 Mulemfo and Mavhandu-Mudzusi.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.


* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa
Preller Street, Muckleneuk Ridge, Pretoria, South Africa; Tel: +27 (0)71 402 4120; E-mail: mulemfod@yahoo.com