HIV/AIDS

This article reports on a nationwide evaluation by the Mozambican Ministry of Health of the quality of care delivered by non-physician clinicians after a two-week in-service training course emphasizing antiretroviral therapy. [adapted from abstract]

This study analyses and reports trends in HIV and non-HIV ambulatory service workloads on clinical staff in urban and rural district level facilities. [from abstract]

This article sought to systematically assess the research training needs of health care professionals working at Peruvian governmental institutions leading HIV and tuberculosis control and among senior stakeholders in the field. [from abstract]

This paper describes a project that has implemented an integrated male engagement program to address gender and family planning/reproductive health in a workplace HIV/AIDS Program. [from author]

This study aimed at identifying the level of HIV-related discriminatory attitudes and related factors in a sample of healthcare workers in Bangladesh. The results indicate that programs to reduce irrational fear about transmission of HIV are urgently needed. [adapted from abstract]

There is little research on HIV awareness and practices of traditional birth attendants (TBA) in India. This study investigated knowledge and attitudes among rural TBA in Karnataka as part of a project examining how traditional birth attendants could be integrated into prevention-of-mother-to-child transmission of HIV programs in India. [from abstract]

This technical brief describes effective or promising practices that leverage the private health care sector in developing countries, taking advantage of existing infrastructure, financial resources, and expertise to better integrate HIV services and reduce the burden on public health facilities. [from introduction]

This research examend HIV-related stigma in Nigeria focusing on how power differences based on gender perpetuate the stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS and how these gender differences affect the care that they receive in health care institutions. [adapted from abstract]

This article presents an innovative approach to healthcare worker (HCW) training using mobile phones as a personal learning environment. Twenty physicians used individual Smartphones in urban and peri-urban HIV/AIDS clinics in Peru, where almost 70% of the nations HIV patients in need of treatment. [adapted from abstract]

The aim of this document is to identify and document promising practices to plan, develop and support national human resources in HIV related strategic information/monitoring and evaluation (M&E). This document adds to recent global M&E system strengthening guidance by compiling examples of promising approaches from a wide range of countries, and is intended for use in the creation of country plans to strengthen the workforce to support a fully functional, national M&E system to ensure strategic information for HIV/AIDS programming. [adapted from summary]

This toolkit is your one-stop source for evidence-based knowledge and promising practices to support the successful integration of family planning (FP) and HIV services. It summarizes the latest evidence and provides links to guidelines and tools to help you plan, manage, deliver, evaluate, and support integrated services. [adapted from publisher]

Antiretroviral treatment services delivered in hospital settings in Africa increasingly lack capacity to meet demand and are difficult to access by patients. This article evaluates the effectiveness of nurse-led primary care based antiretroviral treatment by comparison with usual hospital care in a typical rural sub Saharan African setting. [from abstract]

Expanded access to combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) in resource-poor settings is dependent on task shifting from doctors to other health-care providers. We compared outcomes of nurse versus doctor management of ART care for HIV-infected patients. [from summary]

Against the background of the development of palliative care in Austria the authors undertook this survey to identify the preferences of the general pracitioners’ and nurses’ regarding the specific design of training seminars in palliative care. We wanted to gain a better insight into which educational topics, timeframe, location and group designs are likely to attract a majority of different professional groups. [from author]

Low uptake of voluntary HIV counselling and testing (VCT) in sub-Saharan Africa is raising acceptability concerns which might be associated with ways by which it is offered. This study investigated the acceptability of home-based delivery of counselling and HIV testing in urban and rural populations in Zambia where VCT has been offered mostly from local clinics. [from abstract]

This article discusses the implications and issues concerning the implementation of nurse-initiated ART treatment - rather than the legal and regulatory frameworks governing nurse prescibing that dominate the current debate on these types of delivery programs. [adapted from author]

This article aims at evaluating the traditional healers’ contribution as providers of care to HIV/AIDS patients and other chronically ill persons. [from abstract]

The aim of this article is to document the levels of HIV stigma reported by persons living with HIV infections and nurses in Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland and Tanzania. HIV stigma has been shown to negatively affect the quality of life for people living with HIV infection, their adherence to medication, and their access to care. Few studies have documented HIV stigma by association as experienced by nurses or other health care workers who care for people living with HIV infection. [from abstract]

This study uses data from the Demographic and Health Surveys and AIDS Indicators Surveys from 12 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean to explore use of HIV testing and sexually transimitted infections care from the private for-profit sector, and its association with household wealth status. [adapted from abstract]

The need for documenting how the AIDS epidemic is affecting the health care personnel has long been recognized. In the specific case of Tanzania which already has a Health Sector HIV/AIDS Strategy it is imperative to have information on how the health system and the health personnel who are expected to spearhead the implementation of that strategy are being affected. This can guide preventive and remedial measures to ensure that the capacity of the system and its personnel for the effective implementation of the Strategy is not unduly compromised. [from author]

This study evaluated whether the provider-initiated HIV testing and counseling approach increased HIV testing amongst patients with a new episode of sexually transmitted infection, as compared to standard voluntary counseling and testing at the primary care level in South Africa, a high prevalence and low resource setting. [from abstract]

This successful program highlights how improving HIV care strengthened the primary health care system and validates several critical areas for task shifting that are being considered by other countries in the region, including nurse-driven ART for adults and children, and lay counsellor supported testing and counselling, adherence and case management. [from abstract]

In September 2005, a pilot program of nurse-centered antiretroviral treatment (ART) prescription was launched in three rural primary health centers in Rwanda. We retrospectively evaluated the feasibility and effectiveness of this task-shifting model using descriptive data. [from abstract]

In Mozambique, a country with a high HIV burden and a staggering workforce deficit, the Ministry of Health looked to past experience in workforce expansion to rapidly build ART delivery capacity, including reliance on existing nonphysician clinicians (NPC) to prescribe ART and dramatically increasing the output of NPC training. [from abstract]

The objectives of this study include documenting the role of the private for-profit sector in voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service delivery; establishing whether there are significant differences in the quality of VCT services, particularly in counseling and referral practices, between public, private for-profit, NGO, and mission providers; measuring key VCT service statistics at facilities within each sector; and identify best practices from each sector. [adapted from introduction]

HIV scale-up has triggered innovations in nurse training, task shifting, retention, and scope of practice that need not remain HIV specific. Lessons learned in the context of HIV have the potential to enhance nursing practice and human resources for health more generally, strengthening South Africa’s health systems and improving access to effective health services. [from abstract]

The objective of this study was to field test tools designed to measure stigma and discrimination against patient with HIV/AIDS in the Kenyan context, focusing on facilities and providers of health services. [adapted from summary]

Identification of new ways to increase access to antiretroviral therapy in Africa is an urgent priority. We assessed whether home-based HIV care was as effective as facility-based care. [from summary]

The HIV epidemic poses significant challenges to the low income countries in sub Saharan Africa, affecting the attrition rate among health care workers, their level of motivation, and absenteeism from work. This study aimed to predict the intention to provide surgical treatment to HIV infected patients among medical- and dental students in Tanzania and Sudan using an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. [from abstract]

The Kenya Treatment Access Movement has mobilized healthcare workers from across the country to facilitate formation of a national network for HIV-positive healthcare workers. The network’s mission is to act as an advocate for all healthcare workers living with or affected by HIV, helping to reduce stigma and discrimination, increase their visibility, and expand access to treatment, care, and support services. [from author]