Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitudes and Documentation Practices in a Context of HIV Criminalization: A Secondary Subgroup Analysis of Data from California, Florida, New York, and Texas Nurses

Abstract

Under international legal norms, HIV criminalization is considered to be an overly broad use of criminal law. In the United States, at least 33 states have HIV-specific criminal laws. Data from California, Florida, New York, and Texas nurses provided exemplars from different HIV-related criminal law approaches and the impact of those laws on nurses’ practices. Nurses who cared for patients who expressed fears or concerns about HIV criminalization or patients who had been arrested for HIV-related crimes were more likely to correctly identify the presence or absence of HIV-specific laws in the states where they practised, when compared to nurses who did not care for such patients. Lack of knowledge about HIV-related criminal laws may erode the nurse-patient relationship. Jurisdiction specific education should be created and offered to nurses in order to address this knowledge gap and protect the dignity of people living with HIV.