Vanessa Charles

Vanessa Charles HIV Interview Georgia State University

Vanessa Charles

Introduction The HIV epidemic has grown a great deal in the past 20 years. I had the opportunity to interview a woman on April 2, 2014 who works as a registered nurse, to protect her identity I am going to call her Gabrielle Vega. Mrs. Vega is 50 years old and was diagnosed with the HIV infection at the age of 26. She has worked at a local Atlanta hospital for almost 30 years. She states that it was one of the best things that have ever happened in her lifetime. She has lived in Atlanta all her life and attended a local university in Atlanta. Mrs. Vega is openly and has a partner who is also infected with HIV. She has been with her partner for more then 20 years and they live together in Atlanta with their two dogs. Life Story When I met Mrs. Vega, she looked very healthy and full of life. She was not at all embarrassed nor did she hold back anything from me. I started off the interview by asking her when did she find out that she was infected, and if it was ok if she told be the story on how it happened. She started off saying that when she was in college she was a Party Animal and she acted like most college student behaved. Mrs. Vega explained that she was promiscuous and she was involved more then one sexual partner. She went into saying that she made sure she was always protected whenever she was involved with any person. It only takes one time was what she said, Mrs. Vega explained that she went to a party with a couple of friends and ended up getting under the influence of alcohol. At the end of the night she ending up having a one night stand with a person that she never knew prior to that situation. She knew what she had done was not of her nature. She stated that she knew something was wrong so she went to the doctor and thats when she found out that she was infected. It took her years to get use to it but she went to the doctor regularly and took her medicine everyday. Employment I asked Mrs. Vega on how she felt about the statistics on minorities being she was a Hispanic female. Its really sad, she says she wishes that she can go back and change everything. Being a nurse, she encounters many young, male and females of all races finding out that they have the virus. She says it hurts her everyday because she knows exactly what they are going through. I asked her if it was hard for her to get a job as a nurse. She said that it wasnt, when she said at first when she was going for job interviews and filling out applications she thought about not telling the truth if asked. Workings in the hospital as a HIV positive female gives her strive everyday to go to work and do her job. She states that she is not open to coworker because she feels as if she will be stigmatized against and if people found that she had HIV she would get fired. I asked if she believes that the stigma and discrimination against those who are affected will stop. Her answer was No as much as he wanted that to happen are society will never accept it. I do believe that young and adult people need to be educated because they always think it could never happen to them.

Vanessa Charles Personal Experience

When I made an appointment with Mrs. Vega, I was really nervous. I didnt know how she would react to me asking her questions about something so personal. The experience ended up being the exact opposite of what I thought. I think I was more nervous then she was, I was only asking questions. I conducted the interview at a bench at Piedmont Park. I did learn a lot in the entire hour that we had speaking; I can say that I was a person who really wasnt educated with the topic. She did emphasize, it only takes one time, she lectured me about safe sex and making sure that whenever its time to get involved with anyone sexually to get tested. She spoke a lot about her relationship with her partner Allison. She told me that she met Allison at a support group for people living with HIV. They both knew that they were infected with disease and they clicked when they first met. The experience was an eye opener and I learned more about the topic. Future Social Worker As a Future social worker there are many things that I would love to do when dealing with people infected with HIV. There is so much discrimination and stigma that comes with having the infection. As a social worker I would work hard in having more support groups for newly infected patients. Young people really need to be educated more about safe sex. There should be classes on safe sex for teenagers. I feel like teenagers are not really educated like they should. This is a very important topic and it needs to be touched on more to the community. Conclusion Meeting Ms. Vega was very educational, She was very honest and made me very comfortable asking her such personal questions. I learned that it doesnt matter what you do, if you are not using the right safety percussions you will be infected. I also learned that you can work anywhere as long as youre honest with you employer, some people are not as honest as she was. I believe as a future social worker, newly infected patients should have more support groups since they are at risk for depression. Its important that we educate teenagers in school also. Overall I enjoyed my interview with Ms. Vega and I learned about a person living with HIV.