Reasons Over Risks: NPs and HIV Prevention for Black Women

Abstract

Nurse practitioners (NPs) across specialties are positioned to lead in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention and care, particularly for Black women, a demographic that continues to be disproportionately burdened by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. This article serves as a call to action to critically examine and challenge the prevailing risk-centric framework that has traditionally guided HIV assessment and prevention strategies. We propose a shift from a risk-centric framework to one that is reason centric and rooted in equitable and holistic sexual health care. This paradigmatic shift is critical to improving HIV prevention strategies and fostering better patient-provider communication.