Much has changed since HIV/AIDS first started spreading widely in America. Fortunately, we now have better drugs to treat HIV infections. The healthcare system focuses on prevention through PrEP. America is more accepting of homosexuality, though more progress can always be made. Some things remain similar, though. Preventative vaccines are still a hoped-for but not realized dream. The stigma of a diagnosis still exists, but not nearly as badly as it did in the 1980s (when even President Reagan could not utter the word AIDS).
Forty years later, our challenge becomes not to forget the agony some faced during this epidemic. Even in communities most affected by HIV/AIDS, the topic can be viewed as a relic of the past instead of a live issue for the present. As Faulkner reminds us, the past is never really past, and we benefit from understanding its hardships. In this book, Matzer and Hughes, who worked as nurses on the frontlines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in New York City, seek to chronicle and preserve some of these stories for the future.
The book starts their journeys as recent graduates of a nursing program. They continue their training while working, but they set themselves apart by a deep, abiding compassion for patients suffering from an unknown disease. Being in New York City, they were on the cusp of the action. They educated themselves about what we knew and acted reasonably in response by taking appropriate – but not excessive – precautions. Many of their colleagues criticized them with fearful statements, but Matzer and Hughes persevered.
These stories take place from the late 1970s until when, in the late 1990s, multi-drug therapy made the landmark of containing the disease. They share individual stories of patients. These patients, facing an inevitable, difficult, and isolated death, sought to maintain their human dignity and passion for life. Matzer, in particular, relates stories of her patients. We must not forget these very human struggles lest we lose a part of what it means to be human on this planet.
The book does contain common grammatical and syntactical errors. It could probably use a good editor to provide some polish and strength of plot. However, the first-hand nature of the accounts is evident from this rawness, and the first-hand compassion is even more evident. Nursing students (and students of other health professions) can see the virtuous possibilities of their work. These stories demonstrate how they can make an impact – and be impacted, too! A lot of sadness dwells in these stories, but like Holocaust memorials or remembrances of other tragedies, we are richer for reflecting upon them.
Nurses on the Inside: Stories of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in NYC
By Ellen Matzer and Valery Hughes
Copyright (c) 2019
Tree District Books
ISBN13 9781951072018
Page Count: 242
Genre: Memoir, Healthcare
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