the mission of the national black leadership commission on aids also known as in black is to educate mobilize and empower black leaders to meet the challenge of fighting hiv aids and other health disparities in their local communities today we'll talk about the ways that nurses are happened in the fight to in the h ad the aids epidemic nurses are on the front lines of providing health care and education related to the virus and never get enough recognition for the work that they do earlier this year i had the pleasure of speaking to nearly two hundred nurses who are leaders within an organization named black nurses rock which represents over one hundred and fifty thousand nurses and students worldwide and here with me is irene treadwell who is president and c e o of the new york city chapter of black nurses rock miss treadwell is the license practical nurse working for a nonprofit that serves people who are homeless mentally ill and or substance abusers she'll talk with us about the work that black nurses rock is doing locally to address h all the health concerns affected new yorkers so welcome irene is such a pleasure to have you with me today and i know that we have seen each other and work together on other  initiatives but to have you here today to talk about black nurses work i'm really excited about that so why don't we get started with just telling us a little bit about them on why did you decide to become a nurse by the way i have stand the sight of blood so i'm the only one who didn't move in that direction but i did go into social work and then politics so you know maybe it balances out in some way so i respect i applaud and i commend nurses because for anyone and most people have had to go to the hospitals or doctors and it is the nurse they have the front line so i applaud you so what made you decide to one of the  assistance going back and forth to the doctor there was some medications that she was taking it was so experimental they was shipped directly to us from a pharmaceutical company so i literally had to take the posted to put it on the wall and i administer her injections myself to come back and forth to the doctor and then i work so well we'll have regular visitors who used to come to the house weekly and she told me she said you should just go to nursing school let's make it official i can't afford it for a while and then i said and you might as well go ahead and do it so i went to school in two thousand and eleven i received my certificate in practical nurse in from la guardia community college and then i said i would use that because i also have my bachelor's and health services paulson plan and from n so i guess because that's my calling that's one thing i mean i think that's a beautiful story and i think sometimes people don't often think about what it takes to be a caregiver whether  had we do obviously and the clientele that we serve where i work you do have some clients that work com up positive so and then there's that to fall because they're hiv positive and they may also have a mental health diagnoses so sometimes you have to be mindful all the mentally capable of understanding that particular diagnosis and how can you go about to educate them about the importance of a let's go in and be we're here to help you so we will not leave you alone and to get most importantly over this stigma associated unfortunately in our society with  aids and in particular within the african american community so that's my niche so to speak it is interesting as you mention stigma because here we are now what more than thirty years in knowing what hiv is and how it is transmitting yet we find that there are still a lot of myths about  someone in the criminal laws that exist in more than thirty years so states around the country where people are getting sentences as high as thirty years because they had sexual relations with someone and did not reveal that they were hiv positive so it's this despite the science says by the research despite what we know there are many of the myths that we encounter in our work so i was wondering aside from just the stigma for example which you'd certainly mention what other myths might you see in the work that them this is cold and flu season so people call these don't go anywhere near him or don't eat after him or her let's not share our utensils some people to the point where i don't want to be in the same room i have to remind them you cannot acquire a virus standing next to someone drinking in the same area with them remember we all use strollers i stress that i don't care what you have you don't know what the next person may have respective of what is a terribly virus or is a cold virus you just n g s drop some people if you  the bathroom issue i remember some people work allen jim so they share this out you know it's a communal shower i say you cannot catch a day in the shower so let's be mindful this is two thousand and seventeen again we that let's do that and so a lot of my education is now that your friend you can go to his house you can visit him you can sit on his couch nothing's going to happen no you can play cards you can play dominoes the virus is not all in there you're not going to get it you can only acquire it through blood and bodily fluids unprotected sex if the moment is part of me my path all from the mom to the fight about you know he has to do you know his status as and more importantly do you know your status that's the key that's the question to ask well the other thing you mention about the transmission from mother to child the good news is that certainly in the state of new york now for a number of years we've had less than zero percent of the transmission we need to see that change throughout the country but we have certainly worked very actively here in new york state through testing  testing and treatment if necessary i but that the transmission have a mother to the child and the child being born right positive has certainly been addressed significantly i remember certainly  they still think things like that on this assume if it's unfortunate very unfortunate because it hinders our progress but i think the fear of being on known is the biggest barrier to actually getting proper treatment and all so the fear of unknown dealing with a medical provider because there are some medical providers that don't really understand the importance of regular i would still be when you get a physical done at a party a physical as a part of your health and wellness that doesn't make you or you know shun you from society you need a for head to toe assessment that includes your full blood work yes get tested you need to know if you are positive we have many treatments we have support we are here to help you it's not a death sentence if you get mention health providers even that health providers themselves know enough and here in the state of new york anyway we have a law that they should do testing right test and you think that they know enough or are doing enough to engage patients so that we can identify persons perhaps who are living with the buyer sooner rather than later what about the whole area providers let's talk a little beyond that well in new york we are one and one of the states in the forefront is fully in testing and treating treatment also it's that particular provider and his relationship with his patient or client you can see that some people might say patients some might say client some providers feel like they might be a little intrusive and asking should you get tested others feel like it's my my i took the oath it's my duty to make sure you have a total health and wellness and i'm going to stress that if you do not want to take that then then person has that right but and then we don't think about generations because you might say well she's twenty eight or maybe thirty or forty i'm going to ask her to get tested and i say well everybody should get tested not forget that a person sexual health sexual lifestyle doesn't die at fifty they can have a healthy productive sexual lives all the way to the data they die why should you not include that in the overall testing so i think that's one of the  biggest and the what do you think we need to do with providers for gay she mentions there are things on the generational some feel that they're being intrusive and just don't and they look at certain people in because you are well dressed you have an education there is no way that you could possibly be positive so they don't even bother to test you ought to talk with you about so what do you think in terms of your feel that you're and what we could do to help providers better understand the role that they can play and can be more helpful well again education education education for the providers from a while we need a cultural education we need for you to get over your personal biases about the clientele that you serve because  remember i work in the bronx some people in that particular section life feel you know because some of those folks have a high risk in the past behavior and or present behavior they should be more susceptible to  while you not stating to them you need to get tested so i think again you need to go even the groups in a conference nationally with the border how reach out to the providers we need you to be the leaders in the forefront because depending on the clients nine times out of ten you know my doctor said my doctor said they will listen right doctor and they will listen to clergy right as i want so much to and then we have to remind the doctors let's find a particular way to to deliver the message i've said because if you deliver the message the right way you can have your patient client do whatever you would like for them to do and the you need to actually start the car and bring it out to them and i always say if you have to go to a bar or club or you know the clientele is young and gay multicultural whatever do you go there you  client or patients where they are so i think that's key to go where they are and then put the information where they can understand it but as far as the prep is concerned there tested and then you explain with your doctor and you have to be honest because you have to be open and honest with him in order for him to help you him or her then you will get your prescription you can go out but remember you should also use a condom you can't just take this pill once and been known to get again till next week i said it does more harm than good and i say you must also follow up every three months where your provider to get y a part of what we do in terms of education and i like to say a lot that education perhaps in prevention is much harder in some instances than treatment meaning that you have to say the same thing working relationship with your chapter here in new york city so talk a little about what that is even though i know it is still evolving and what would you like to see that be  well i'm one of those people but this you are put the foot down i left go we have work to do so i am claiming that we will work together to go for faith each and every neighborhood to get the word we look like you you look like me i think that's also important to to have the face of familiar face and then remember the familia age because there are some people i'm fifty there are that's my ultimate goal would be an hour and when i see there we're just going to team up and get the ball rolling well woodside about it because we know the possibilities that exist in and around the country as we work with light nurses rock and thing that we can do in our community so i'm happy to hear about the partnership that we're forming with you here locally and look to be doing across the nation so the last few minutes that we have let's talk a little about what's next f black nurses rock both locally and nationally and how old it is the national organization the national was established as a nurse and organization and tw canada japan and the bahamas we have four thousand official members nationally we have over one hundred and seventy thousand made this year will make one year for us so we have twenty eight dollars members and counting and on the national level we are as well as working with go for we need to in order to have a strong tree with you have to plant a seed for it so we're going to go for as young as five years old and teach them the importance of education st and foremost and then for our young brothers and sisters who are either in their last she and those in school who are graduating and have a license and they just starting out as new nurses we want to do you want to be a mentor or precept i'm excited just hearing you say with the possibilities and knowing again the roles that you play in the field of medicine overall whether it's in private offices in large institutions in hospitals you make a difference and it matters having you there so i thank you so much for joining me today and share and with us and the viewers about what it is that you do in black nurses around rock and i love the show that to better inform the public you the viewer about the important topics that impact your health and well being so please let your family friends and neighbors know about this program and  virginia fields thank you for joining us and hope you're tune in next time when black was health action t v right here in manhattan neighborhood network