Objective:

To analyze the representational contents of health care professionals about human immunodeficiency virus in counseling.

Method:

Study of social representations with a procedural approach of the descriptive-exploratory type conducted with 30 professional counselors from 17 points of the health care network in the period from June 2017 to February 2018 in accordance with the COREQ. Data were collected from the techniques of interviews and observation. The corpus was elaborated and submitted to thematic-categorical content analysis with support from the ATLAS.ti 8.0 software.

Results:

The following categories emerged: social prejudices that compromise the confidentiality and privacy in the reception; vulnerabilities that consolidate pre-test counseling; and serological condition and treatment that impose urgency to testing. The representational contents about the human immunodeficiency virus, such as social prejudices, vulnerabilities, serological condition, and treatment, are related to the difficulties in ensuring confidentiality and privacy in the welcoming practices, the emphasis of pre-test counseling, and the urgency of testing according to the care point.

Conclusion

The analysis of the representational contents revealed that the communication of the diagnosis of HIV should be guided by the perspectives of health promotion and network health care. As for the implications for Nursing, it is considered that it provides directions and actions that enhance the appropriate professional performance, consequently improving the assistance to people. In order that the understanding of intersubjective aspects can subsidize favorable conditions in counseling at all points of the health care network.

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