This study reports findings from six training projects designed to keep health providers up-to-date on emerging developments and approaches in HIV/AIDS care. Participants were 3,779 individuals who described themselves, their professional background, and their specific experience in the HIV/AIDS field. These characteristics were compared with their self-reported confidence in managing clients, counseling clients, providing services, and the training topics. A repeated-measures design examining level and change of confidence showed little support for links between provider characteristics and confidence due to HIV/AIDS training experience. Thus, knowing a provider's background does not necessarily provide diagnostic information about who might most benefit in improved confidence from HIV/AIDS educational training. These results suggest that HIV/AIDS training programs may be targeted broadly-to a wide range of healthcare providers of diverse backgrounds-with little or no impact on overall levels and changes in provider confidence.

An evaluation of nine diverse HIV/AIDS training programs assessed the degree to which the programs produced changes in the ways that health care systems deliver HIV/AIDS care. Participants were interviewed an average of 8 months following completion of training and asked for specific examples of a resulting change in their health care system. More than half of the trainees gave at least one example of a systems change. The examples included the way patient referrals are made, the manner in which agency collaborations are organized, and the way care is delivered.

HIV/AIDS education and training have played a vital role in keeping health providers up to date on emerging developments and approaches. This study reports findings from seven HIV/AIDS education and training projects. Participants in more than 600 training sessions described themselves, their professional background, and their general reasons for taking the training. Immediately following the training, they also rated the quality of their educational experience along several dimensions. Trainee characteristics were related to assessments of training quality, using a regression decision-tree analytic approach. Although effect sizes were generally small, quality ratings of the HIV/AIDS training experiences were associated with certain projects, basic trainee demographic characteristics, professional background, and experience in the HIV field. Greater understanding about participant characteristics can provide clues about how these training experiences are perceived and processed and may inform decision making about instructional HIV/AIDS curricula.

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Purpose -To formulate an effective teaching prog ramme in the principles of clinical effectiveness for junior doctors, with simultaneous participation in a clinical audit project during their six-month period of employment. Design/methodology/approach -Accident and Emergency (A&E) Senior House Officers (SHOs) were educated in the principles of clinical effectiveness through a structured five-session approach whilst they concurrently performed their clinical audit project. Throughout the process the A&E SHOs were supported by the Clinical Effectiveness Unit and the A&E Consultant overseeing departmental audit. Findings -The structured teaching programme resulted in a good understanding of the clinical effectiveness process amongst the A&E SHOs, as demonstrated by their ability to perform a clinical audit project which ultimately improved practice. Research limitations/implications -This study has involved the construction and assessment of a teaching framework for junior doctors. The conclusions have been drawn on the basis of objective measures such as the completion of a clinical audit project which successfully improved practice. Thus, the publications of the findings may be considered in the category of a research paper. However, the authors accept that the assessment of a teaching programme's success and its portability to other departments or institutions can be highly subjective. Practical implications -With appropriate guidance and support, junior doctors are able to perform meaningful clinical effectiveness exercises at an early stage in their careers and within the constraints of short periods of employment. The structured teaching approach could be considered as a template which other institutions may wish to adopt to educate their own juniors. Originality/value -Despite the increasing importance of clinical audit in modern practice, the authors are not aware of any published teaching programmes which provide junior doctors with the necessary understanding of and skills required to take part in the clinical effectiveness process.