Confidentiality lies at the core of medical ethics and is the cornerstone for developing and keep... more Confidentiality lies at the core of medical ethics and is the cornerstone for developing and keeping a trusting relationship between nurses and patients. In the wake of the HIV epidemic, there has been a heightened focus on confidentiality in healthcare contexts. Nurses' follow-up of HIV-positive women and their susceptible HIV-exposed children has proved to be challenging in this regard, but the ethical dilemmas concerning confidentiality that emerge in the process of ensuring HIV-free survival of the third party - the child - have attracted limited attention. The study explores challenges of confidentiality linked to a third party in nurse-patient relationships in a rural Tanzanian HIV/AIDS context. The study was carried out in rural and semi-urban settings of Tanzania where the population is largely agro-pastoral, the formal educational level is low and poverty is rife. The HIV prevalence of 1.5% is low compared to the national prevalence of 5.1%. Data were collected during 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork and consisted of participant observation in clinical settings and during home visits combined with in-depth interviews. The main categories of informants were nurses employed in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programmes and HIV-positive women enrolled in these programmes. Based on information about the study aims, all informants consented to participate. Ethical approval was granted by ethics review boards in Tanzania and Norway. The material indicates a delicate balance between the nurses' attempt to secure the HIV-free survival of the babies and the mothers' desire to preserve confidentiality. Profound confidentiality-related dilemmas emerged in actual practice, and indications of a lack of thorough consideration of the implication of a patient's restricted disclosure came to light during follow-up of the HIV-positive women and the third party - the child who is at risk of HIV infection through mother's milk. World Health Organization's substantial focus on infant survival (Millennium Development Goal-4) and the strong calls for disclosure among the HIV-positive are reflected on in the discussion.
A growing emphasis on patient involvement in health care has brought &amp... more A growing emphasis on patient involvement in health care has brought 'informed choice' to the core of the debate on provider-patient interaction in global health-care programmes. How the principles of patient involvement and informed choice are implemented and experienced in diverging health systems and cultural contexts are issues of increasing interest. Infant feeding and infant feeding counselling of HIV-positive women have posed particular challenges related to choice. Based on ethnographic research conducted from 5 November 2008 to 5 August 2009 within prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programmes in two hospitals in rural and semi-urban Tanzania, this study explores nurse counsellors' and HIV-positive women's experiences of infant feeding counselling and patient choice. One of the hospitals (hospital A) promoted exclusive breastfeeding as the only infant feeding option, while the other hospital (hospital B) aimed to follow the Tanzanian PMTCT infant feeding guidelines of 2007 promoting patient choice in infant feeding methods. Women in hospital A expressed trust in the advice given and confidence in their own ability to practice exclusive breastfeeding, while women in hospital B expressed great uncertainty and confusion about how best to feed their infants. This paper reflects on the feasibility of a counselling procedure that promotes choice of infant feeding methods in PMTCT programmes in severely resource-poor settings where HIV-positive women have limited access to resources and to up-to-date knowledge on HIV and infant feeding outside the counselling room. We suggest that a universalistic procedure presenting the same unambiguous message on infant feeding to all women enrolled in the PMTCT programme in this and similar settings is likely to produce more confidence, less confusion and, hence, better results in terms of HIV-free survival of the baby.
Confidentiality lies at the core of medical ethics and is the cornerstone for developing and keep... more Confidentiality lies at the core of medical ethics and is the cornerstone for developing and keeping a trusting relationship between nurses and patients. In the wake of the HIV epidemic, there has been a heightened focus on confidentiality in healthcare contexts. Nurses' follow-up of HIV-positive women and their susceptible HIV-exposed children has proved to be challenging in this regard, but the ethical dilemmas concerning confidentiality that emerge in the process of ensuring HIV-free survival of the third party - the child - have attracted limited attention. The study explores challenges of confidentiality linked to a third party in nurse-patient relationships in a rural Tanzanian HIV/AIDS context. The study was carried out in rural and semi-urban settings of Tanzania where the population is largely agro-pastoral, the formal educational level is low and poverty is rife. The HIV prevalence of 1.5% is low compared to the national prevalence of 5.1%. Data were collected during 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork and consisted of participant observation in clinical settings and during home visits combined with in-depth interviews. The main categories of informants were nurses employed in prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV programmes and HIV-positive women enrolled in these programmes. Based on information about the study aims, all informants consented to participate. Ethical approval was granted by ethics review boards in Tanzania and Norway. The material indicates a delicate balance between the nurses' attempt to secure the HIV-free survival of the babies and the mothers' desire to preserve confidentiality. Profound confidentiality-related dilemmas emerged in actual practice, and indications of a lack of thorough consideration of the implication of a patient's restricted disclosure came to light during follow-up of the HIV-positive women and the third party - the child who is at risk of HIV infection through mother's milk. World Health Organization's substantial focus on infant survival (Millennium Development Goal-4) and the strong calls for disclosure among the HIV-positive are reflected on in the discussion.
A growing emphasis on patient involvement in health care has brought &amp... more A growing emphasis on patient involvement in health care has brought 'informed choice' to the core of the debate on provider-patient interaction in global health-care programmes. How the principles of patient involvement and informed choice are implemented and experienced in diverging health systems and cultural contexts are issues of increasing interest. Infant feeding and infant feeding counselling of HIV-positive women have posed particular challenges related to choice. Based on ethnographic research conducted from 5 November 2008 to 5 August 2009 within prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programmes in two hospitals in rural and semi-urban Tanzania, this study explores nurse counsellors' and HIV-positive women's experiences of infant feeding counselling and patient choice. One of the hospitals (hospital A) promoted exclusive breastfeeding as the only infant feeding option, while the other hospital (hospital B) aimed to follow the Tanzanian PMTCT infant feeding guidelines of 2007 promoting patient choice in infant feeding methods. Women in hospital A expressed trust in the advice given and confidence in their own ability to practice exclusive breastfeeding, while women in hospital B expressed great uncertainty and confusion about how best to feed their infants. This paper reflects on the feasibility of a counselling procedure that promotes choice of infant feeding methods in PMTCT programmes in severely resource-poor settings where HIV-positive women have limited access to resources and to up-to-date knowledge on HIV and infant feeding outside the counselling room. We suggest that a universalistic procedure presenting the same unambiguous message on infant feeding to all women enrolled in the PMTCT programme in this and similar settings is likely to produce more confidence, less confusion and, hence, better results in terms of HIV-free survival of the baby.
Uploads