Nursing Training Curriculum: HIV Practice and Reducing Stigma

Post Date: 
2004-01-01
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Countries: 
Summary: 

In 2004, CCGHE partnered with nursing leadership at Sassoon General Hospital, a 1500-bed public hospital in Pune, to develop a nursing training program to improve the care of patients with HIV. The program curriculum, developed by members of the Johns Hopkins (JH) AIDS Service (recognized worldwide for excellence in HIV-related patient care) and Sassoon nursing supervisors, was specifically designed to address identified gaps in nursing knowledge and experience related to HIV care with the aim of optimizing patient care and reducing stigma. The program implemented a "train the trainer" approach; a selection of 22 nursing intructors, sisters-in-charge and staff nurses received the initial training and were then charged with training the remaining nursing staff during 4-day sessions among groups of 15 nurses. CCGHE conducted a series of program evaluations, which revealed:

  • A 13-fold increase in correct knowledge of HIV transmission and a 22-fold increase in correct understanding of the proper use of universal precautions in the care of HIV patients among nurses who were trained
  • A significant reduction in the number of nurses expressing fear about caring for patients with HIV
  • A significant reduction in stigma and discrimination of HIV-infected patients at Sassoon Hospital.

The original training program was adopted into the pre-service curriculum at the School of Nursing at Sassoon Hospital, and the Nursing Superintendent for Maharashtra state requested that the program be expanded to 5 additional large, urban hospitals and be provided to more than 5000 nurses in the State. In addition, CCGHE created a PDF version of the nurse training modules that was available for download on the CCGHE website. Nursing Training Curriculum: HIV Practice and Reducing Stigma was our first CCGHE training program and was a very popular program with more than 11,000 downloads.  

Collaborators: 

Sassoon General Hospital