From intention to practice
Respectful care involves the entire team: medicine, nursing, social work, psychology, mediation, reception and administration.
- Ask how the person wants you to address them and what concerns them.
- Explain why you need each piece of information. Avoid irrelevant questions based on your identity or activity.
- Be careful where you speak and who can hear. Privacy is also protected in waiting rooms and counters.
- Applies precautions that correspond to clinical activity, without unjustified restrictions due to a diagnosis.
- Review whether procedures and requirements are creating barriers that can be resolved.
Three situations to review as a team
Fictional cases to discuss specific decisions. They do not describe actual incidents.
Illustrative case 01Sensitive information at reception
Situation. Fictitious case: to confirm an appointment, a person is asked to explain their HIV diagnosis out loud in front of the waiting room.
What a problem it poses. The place and way of asking exposes private information that may not be necessary to manage the appointment. The person loses control over who hears that information.
How to improve. Check what administrative information is missing, speak discreetly, and offer a private space if a sensitive conversation is needed. Review the procedure for all people, without pointing out who raised the problem.
Illustrative case 02A query that is based on assumptions
Situation. Fictitious case: a trans person consults for back pain. The conversation initially focuses on their genitals and gender-affirming treatments without explaining their relationship with the reason for the consultation.
What a problem it poses. Identity displaces the motive of attention. Asking about intimate information without explaining its relevance can convey that the person must justify who they are in order to receive care.
How to improve. Listen to the reason for the consultation and make the appropriate evaluation. If intimate information is clinically relevant, explain why you are asking, take care of privacy, and use the agreed upon name and address.
Illustrative case 03A derivation that is not made
Situation. Fictitious case: a person living on the streets receives a referral whose appointment is only confirmed via email. You do not have an account that you can consult.
What a problem it poses. Providing a referral does not guarantee access. The system presupposes a tool and material conditions that the person does not have.
How to improve. Ask which contact you can safely use and check with the receiving service for an available alternative. Explain the next step and who can help manage it. Propose revising the procedure if the barrier affects more people.
Learn to recognize stigma
The project with UCM students focuses on the psychosocial aspects of HIV and sexually transmitted infections, and the stigma associated with them.
Know the training lineThe organization can also change
Reviewing protocols, including access alternatives and incorporating the voice of the people served helps ensure that responsibility does not fall only on those who suffer discrimination.
Actions for an organizationSources to continue reading
- HIV-positive words (opens another tab)
- HIV, hepatitis and STI services for key populations · 2022 (opens another tab)
- Stigma experience of people with HIV in Spain · 2024 (opens another tab)
Document consultation: September 21, 2026. The selection of sources does not amount to a professional review of this page. How we process information.