Nurses' Perceptions of the Vulnerabilities to STD/AIDS In Light of the Process of Adolescence

OBJECTIVE:

To understand the perception of nurses on the vulnerabilities to STD/AIDS in light of the process of adolescence.

METHOD:

Qualitative research conducted with 15 nurses in a centre for the studies of adolescent healthcare of a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro/Brazil. The adopted theoretical and methodological frameworks were the Complexity Theory and the Grounded Theory, respectively. The semi-structured interview was used to collect data from January to August 2012.

RESULTS:

This research presents the category: Nurses' perceptions of the vulnerabilities to STD/AIDS in light of the process of adolescence, and the subcategories: Risks and uncertainties of the process of adolescence: paths to STD/AIDS; Age-adolescence complex: expanding knowledge from the perception of nurses.

CONCLUSION:

Once the nurses understand the complexity of adolescence, they create strategies to reduce the vulnerability of adolescents to STD/AIDS. This signals the need to invest in education, assistance and the management of nursing care for adolescents...

Nurses perceive the vulnerabilities to STD/AIDS in the context of adolescence as a multidimensional phenomenon that involves aspects related to feelings of invulnerabilities to sex, gender iniquities, and knowledge gaps. This perception is cross sectional to the intervention context of nurses because it covers several areas of healthcare, oriented toward complementarity.

Based on the field of perception, the nurses identify, create and develop strategies to reduce the vulnerabilities of adolescents to STD/AIDS. In this sense, the complexity of the phenomenon lies in recognizing it beyond the linear cause-and-effect relationship. Consequently, nursing care for adolescents that aims to promote sexual health and strategies that reduce vulnerabilities to STD/AIDS among this population should consider, within the field of perception, the process of adolescence as plural and singular. This recommendation calls for investments in the education process of adolescent healthcare and, as a complementary factor, the provision of assistance and the management of care for this population.

A possible limitation of this study is the scenario in which it was conducted, since it represents a specific context for the promotion of adolescent healthcare. Other scenarios and realities may provide further evidence to the evidence presented in these results. The replication of this study in different scenarios and the conduction of studies that include a multi-professional health team and adolescents as the subjects of research are therefore recommended, considering that the process of adolescence and vulnerabilities to STD/AIDS are complex phenomena...

Full article at: http://goo.gl/jcU866

By: Silva ÍR¹, Gomes AM², Valadares GV¹, Santos NL³, Silva TP³, Leite JL³.

¹Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

²Faculdade de Enfermagem, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

³Escola de Enfermagem Anna Nery, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

  

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