Course Overview

This evidence-based continuing education course examines HIV related stigma, discrimination, and unrecognized bias and how each one shows up in emergency departments and primary care practices, the settings where many Nevadans first encounter the healthcare system. It explains what Nevada SB 439 requires, reviews the current national and Nevada HIV picture, and gives nurses practical tools to deliver respectful, confidential, and equitable care to people who have or are at high risk of acquiring HIV.

Topics include: the SB 439 and NRS 632.343(3)(e) requirement and who it applies to, HIV in the United States and in Nevada including Clark and Washoe County data, the history of HIV stigma and how it developed, the forms of stigma (enacted, anticipated, internalized, perceived, and structural) and layered or intersectional stigma, the Health Stigma and Discrimination Framework, the difference between stigma and discrimination, implicit and unrecognized bias and the conditions that make it more likely, how stigma affects testing, prevention, treatment adherence, and viral suppression, the science that counters stigma including U=U and standard precautions, person-first and nonstigmatizing language, taking a respectful sexual history, routine opt-out HIV testing and PrEP and PEP, confidentiality and legal protections including the ADA, responding when you witness stigma, organizational strategies, and Nevada resources.

Each chapter includes case-based self-check questions with rationales, and the course concludes with a 10-question post-test. Emphasis is placed on strategies nurses can use immediately to recognize their own reactions, interrupt bias, and make emergency and primary care settings places where people with or at risk of HIV feel safe getting tested, starting prevention or treatment, and staying in care.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the Nevada SB 439 training requirement and the current national and Nevada burden of HIV.
2. Define HIV related stigma, discrimination, and unrecognized bias, and explain how they arise and show up in emergency and primary care settings.
3. Identify the effects of stigma and discrimination on testing, prevention, treatment, and health outcomes for people who have or are at high risk of acquiring HIV.
4. Apply evidence-based individual, communication, and organizational strategies to reduce HIV related stigma and bias and deliver respectful, confidential, and equitable care.

Key Features

Course Author: Joanna Nolte, MSN, APRN, ANP-BC, FNP-BC, Accredited Provider Program Director. Nurse Planner: Vanessa Cameron, PhD, RN. No conflicts of interest to disclose.

Release date: November 1, 2026. Expires October 31, 2029.