Integrating PozQoL into community nursing for people living with HIV

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Enhancing person-centred care and quality of life for people living with HIV

Bolton Clarke HIV Clinical Nurse Practitioner Dr Liz Crock talks about how integrating PozQoL into nursing assessments provides a holistic approach to person-centred care, addressing stigma, mental health, and social isolation.

Delivering holistic, person-centred care

Bolton Clarke’s nurse-led HIV program has been providing care and support for clients living with HIV at home since 1985. The program focuses on improving health outcomes and quality of life for clients by integrating clinical care, social support, health promotion, and advocacy.

PozQoL: A tool for tailored support

The HIV program has developed an HIV Assessment tool, which incorporates PozQoL. This tool provides a quick yet holistic view of a client’s overall health by considering key domains such as health, functional, psychological, and social wellbeing. It highlights issues around stigma, mental health, and social isolation, which are often overlooked by other assessments.

Transforming care and driving improvements

PozQoL enables our nurses to develop individualised, person-centred care plans that address gaps in care that might otherwise go unnoticed. Clients often bring up additional concerns in conversations when responding to PozQoL questions, allowing nurses to provide immediate suggestions or make appropriate referrals to address their needs.

Using PozQoL before and after implementing care interventions offers clear insights into the effectiveness of those interventions. This feedback allows nurses to either reinforce positive outcomes with clients or adjust care plans as necessary.

PozQoL also plays a role in informing program-wide changes by identifying trends or evaluating the impact of policy and procedural adjustments. For example, we have used PozQoL to assess the effect of implementing regular phone calls for clients between visits or to evaluate the impact of community care aids designed to promote socialisation. By comparing pre- and post-intervention data, we can determine whether changes have had a positive or negative effect and make improvements accordingly.

View the full poster — which won the Poster Prize at the 2022 IAS/ASHM HIV Conference! — for more details about how Bolton Clarke is integrating PozQoL into HIV nursing assessments.