About Chris
- Full Name
- Chris Shaw
- Website
- http://
- Details
- Christopher Shaw is an HIV/AIDS certified nurse working in the Infectious Disease Department at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Christopher has been working in the HIV field since 1985.
While studying English/Journalism at St John's University in 1985 he worked as a volunteer in a special feeding program at Lincoln Hospital in the South Bronx NY and as a nursing attendant at the Gift of Love Hospice in Greenwich Village NY for people in end stages of AIDS illness. Through these patient care experiences Christopher was inspired to pursue a vocation as a nurse.
For the past 6 years Christopher has been actively involved with HIV treatment sites in sub-Saharan Africa. He lived in South Africa in 2001 and 2002 assisting in setting up HIV treatment sites and working as a nurse in an antenatal clinic in kwa Zulu Natal. He became active with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa and volunteered in their HIV outreach educational events called Treatment Literacy Workshops in urban and rural areas throughout South Africa. Christopher has worked as an HIV/AIDS consultant to programs in many sub-Saharan African countries in staff education and monitoring and evaluation of newly implemented HIV treatment sites. He lived and worked in Ethiopia educating health care workers during the rollout of their countrywide antiretroviral program. He continues international outreach to nurses through Massachusetts General Hospital Infectious Disease Clinic's Health Care Online Provider Education monthly series to clinics in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and has recently been the guest presenter in two Online nursing topics including Care for the Caregiver and HIV Testing moving from fear to Care.
For the past two years he has been pursuing a monthly apprenticeship in Spiritual Direction through The Guild Program of Spiritual Guidance, a certificate program focusing on three core curriculum areas; Western Mystical Tradition, Jungian Depth Psychology and Teilhard Dechardin's vision of the transformational journey in a global and cosmic setting. The Guild's ecumenical program focuses on the three core areas within the diverse contexts of contemporary life and promotes spirituality as an individual as well as collective evolutionary experience. Christopher hopes to apply these areas of learning to nursing transformation in resource limited settings by helping nurses recognize their unique and transformative healing power in their roles as caregivers, advocates and educators to individuals and communities and in identifying Care for the Caregiver opportunities for nurses particularly in areas where the burden of illness and death result in collective trauma.
Christopher is the cofounder of "Sibusiso" (a Zulu word meaning blessing) a non-profit organization based in Boston partnering with HIV programs in the KZN and the Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa and committed to supporting health care workers in their outreach efforts of prevention, education and assisting those in need in accessing health care and treatment.
Posts by Chris