Can You Be a Nurse With HIV or Not?

Can you be a nurse with HIV

You can absolutely be a nurse with HIV in the United States. There are a lot of dangers that come with HIV, but it’s not something that will let you perform less than anyone else.

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Being a nurse has nothing to do with the spread of viruses which in many cases won’t make you a worse nurse.

Can you be a nurse with HIV?

Even having HIV won’t make you any less hard-working than someone who doesn’t have HIV.

As long as you have some sort of medication to deal with HIV then you shouldn’t have a problem with being any kind of nurse at work.

We’ve only dealt with HIV for a couple of decades, but it hasn’t been such a threat to us that it prevents others from getting careers that they would really want.

The nurse is either spread through sexual intercourse or through sharing needles with someone who has HIV.

It can’t be spread through spitting, sweating, or any kind of skin contact of any kind.

It won’t be a threat to anyone who is going to receive service from any kind of nurse.

The only way the nurse could realistically be a liability is if one of the nurses descend to have sex with their patients.

See also: Do Nurses Relieve Patients?

That would cause the nurse to not only lose their job but also have their license suspended.

There aren’t any physical differences when someone contracts HIV, so they wouldn’t be much of a distraction to the patients or the people who work at the hospital.

Even as the nurse is getting interviewed their own personal history isn’t something that should come up during the interview.

See also: Interview Questions for Clinical Nurse Specialist

You’re fully entitled to not answer the question if you don’t like that they’re asking you about that.

In fact, being a nurse is likely going to help you with your virus.

The hospital has a lot of resources to help you deal with HIV. Unfortunately, right now there isn’t a vaccine that’s available for the public to use.

Perhaps it will exist one day, but as of right now, the hospital is going to have a lot of resources to suppress your HIV as much as possible.

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Can you be a nurse with HIV

Can you be a nurse if you have HIV in North America?

In Canada, you have no legal obligation to state that you have HIV. This is a decision that’s made to protect hardworking nurses that want to improve the health of others.

If employers were allowed to discriminate based on diseases that a nurse may have had or currently has, there are a lot of potential healthcare workers that couldn’t get a job.

Overall, them hiring you despite you having HIV is a much better outcome for society.

Dealing with that is enough stress on your own, but having the support of a hospital is going to make your life much easier.

In the United States, the same can apply. Though there wouldn’t be any way for HIV to get spread if you follow the rules, it might still impact their decision to hire you.

Honestly, the only people that should know you have HIV is the people that you’re having sex with.

If everyone knows that you have HIV, that’s just going to do more harm than good.

It might make patients who are just naive and don’t know any better, afraid to receive any kind of service from you.

The US has had some spreads of HIV that the government isn’t comfortable with, but that wouldn’t justify not hiring someone due to having the virus.

The virus isn’t contagious and is only spread through sharing blood or having sexual intercourse.

There isn’t a rational reason as to why a nurse would do that and if they did do that, they would already have their licenses suspended.

Fortunately, as the newer generations of people grow up, there’s more education on viruses like these, people have understood that they’re not a threat to strangers around you as well as patients.

All that matters is that the nurses won’t share blood contact with the patients or co-workers under any kind of circumstance.

In terms of production, there isn’t a real reason as to why someone with HIV would be less productive than someone without HIV.

The virus indeed attacks the immune system and that can be problematic at times.

However, if the nurse with HIV takes the proper medication, studies show that the medicine can suppress the virus to where it’s almost untraceable.

See also: Can Registered Nurses Prescribe Medication?

It doesn’t mean that it can’t be spread to other people.

But it does mean that any medical issues that someone with HIV would’ve faced would be nonexistent with the proper medical attention.

Can you be a nurse with HIV in the UK?

In the UK, the virus is a lot less common than in other parts of the world.

In fact, HIV is rarely talked about as much as in places like the United States and some West African countries.

It really has never been a problem, but they’re still are some people who suffer from the virus.

If they do have the virus, it shouldn’t ever really become a problem as long as the nurse is a responsible human being.

See also: Responsibility of a Nurse

In some cases, having this virus may not even be that much to alarm people.

It’s a much bigger deal in other countries and no ones even likely going to bring it up.

In most cases, your employer isn’t going to ask about your health status unless it’s something that is immediately obvious to the human eye or could be spread to other patients.

The hospitals in the UK are very strict and it’s almost impossible to spread something like HIV to your patient.

In many, cases, it isn’t the business of your employer or the patient that you’re taken care of whether you have HIV or not.

You shouldn’t tell anyone in your workplace if you have HIV as that might change how they affect you forever.

You can’t transmit the virus at all without serious blood contact for extended periods of time.

Even in cases such as that, not everyone gets HIV the first time.

If you’ve had HIV for years now, it’s unlikely that anything major in your life is going to change.

But if you do plan on getting intimate with anyone in your private life, it’s your obligation to tell them that you have HIV.

It’s not going to be something that should ever come up in conversation with a patient and if your coworkers ever bring it up, remember that you don’t have to answer to them.

See also: Can You Be a Nurse With Eczema?

Conclusion: Can you work as a nurse with HIV?

HIV used to be one of the most deadly viruses in its infancy. There are still some disputes over where the virus originated from and how it was transmitted to humans.

There has also been a lot of stereotypes about HIV that have perpetuated stereotypes that hurt certain communities.

However, today, people realize that no one is safe and people are a lot safer about who they have sex with.

People go to the doctor to get checked so that they can deal with STDs they may catch in their infancy.

You should never be afraid of going to the doctor to talk about your sexual health all that’s important is that you make the right decision for your health.

Constantly having sex with people unprotected could have serious consequences and could even have problems for the future when it comes to fertility.

See also: Fertility Nurse Interview Questions

Condoms have been the most effective short-term method for not getting STDs and they’re sold at just about every convenience store and gas station.

Not only are condoms made for men, No products found..

However, the ones made for men are far more popular and available.

In the workplace, it’s illegal in some states and provinces to decide to hire people based on their medical history.

The medical industry takes a bunch of precautions so that they don’t get people sick with any disease.

Every nurse or doctor could have a disease or bacteria that hasn’t shown symptoms.

Fortunately, as problematic that HIV can be, it shouldn’t be something that people ask you about.

As long as it’s something that doesn’t affect their ability to have sex with you, they really shouldn’t even be asking about that kind of stuff.

Right now, medicine has advanced so much that it isn’t a massive problem if someone were to get HIV.

As long as they’re on a healthcare plan and have a moderate amount of money, their health should stay in the same place as it was before.

Over time, it will get expensive as the toll of paying for HIV drugs will become somewhat expensive.

But in terms of your actual life, HIV shouldn’t be that much of a problem.

It certainly won’t become a problem in the workplace at all as long as other people respect your privacy.

You may have problems when facing other diseases, but when it comes to the US, UK, and Canada, having HIV won’t stop you from getting a job as a nurse.

At this point, you should know whether can you be a nurse with HIV or not.

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About Ida Koivisto, BSN, RN, PHN

Ida is both a registered nurse and public health nurse. Her passion is to provide as much valuable information about nursing to the world as possible. In her spare time from work and blogging, Ida loves to work out at the gym and spend time with relatives.