Although the Florida Department of Health has a specific HIV policy in place, its implementation requires an update due to the flawed program direction and controversial outcomes for the intended population.
Introduction to the Problem
HIV presents a serious and complex concern for Florida. In particular, an estimated 106,000 people were living with AIDS in the state in 2015 whereas the number reached almost 136,000 in 2016, and around 15% of individuals living, with HIV but being unaware of their diagnosis. Among these individuals, more than 71% comprises of males with 43% of the HIV-infected individuals being African Americans, 28.3% being white, and 22.7% Hispanics. From the ethnic and gender perspective, African American females face the greatest challenge because they are 17.5 more times likely to have this diagnosis as compared to white female. While 2,054 individuals died from the disease in 2015, 4,940 people were newly diagnosed with HIV. Miami has the highest new HIV prevalence level in the USA, including 47 HIV-positive individuals per 100,000 residents, whereas Florida has the second-highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the country. Male-to-male sex is the major way of disease transmission.
The Policy
The high-level HIV prevalence is regardless of the FHD’s program and substantial expenditures on the policy. Specifically, HIV treatment individual expenditures range from $2,000 to $5,000 per month, with lifetime care costs increasing tremendously. The greater part of the total funding $311,405,407 comes from the Ryan White HIV/ AIDS program above $213 billion, with $50 billion coming from the federal budget. Despite of that the program targets people with HIV diagnosis, and sufficient emphasis is put on prevention as well. Nonetheless, the effectiveness seems rather questionable due to the high rates of new infection rates. Moreover, among individuals diagnosed with HIV, only 75% obtain care, 68% retain care and 62% of them acquire suppressed viral load status. Apart from the lack of care access in rural areas, the problem relates to the criminalization and stigmatization of people with HIV status. For instance, individuals with HIV/ AIDS are likely to encounter felony charges in case they fail to disclose their status to sexual partners, including fines or imprisonment as a punishment.
Legislators Involved in the Policy Development and Dissemination
While HIV/ AIDS is a disease, the complexity of the challenge requires an expanded scope of legislators, involving healthcare providers, social service,, and law enforcement among the key stakeholders.
The Role of the APRN
Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) are well-positioned to be at the grassroots of HIV policy upgrades in light of their extensive knowledge and skills as well as highly qualified potential in the sector. In particular, they are well aware of the care process management, proactive plan development, along target population outreach due to the expanded primary care practice.
The Policy Influence of Clinical Practice
Whereas the health of both HIV-infected and other residents is concerned, the APRNs’ involvement in the policy update will lead to enhanced clinical practice outcomes. Along with the improved patient retention rates, the step can result in better patient education to prevent HIV transmission and spread and overcome the public stigma of the disease and people being diagnosed with HIV.
The Interprofessional Team
Interprofessional collaboration should be at the core of the updated FHD HIV policy since it is likely to address intolerance, hostility, and aggression in public perception of both the disease and people with it as a new public health framework. Apart from law enforcement and social service, the interprofessional team can involve employers because this stakeholder can be valuable for improved employee access to HIV testing, prevention measures, and education in light of on-the-job training. In this way, the policy will be implemented comprehensively and holistically.
Conclusion
Since HIV is a sufficient and complex problem in Florida, the proposed measures can facilitate the policy implementation to eliminate the challenge in a thorough way.

Material from the scientist's HIV research Dorothy Terror Biomedical Research Center at the Department of Health and Human Services and an expert in academic writing education https://writology.com/