The HIV Primary Care Workforce of Tomorrow: The UCSF Integrated HIV/AIDS Primary Care Capacity Nurse Practitioner Program

Abstract

The increasing demand for primary care services and the current health care workforce shortage is predicted to cause drastic reductions in the number of clinicians who are competent to provide HIV care. For the past decade, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Nursing has provided HIV specialty education for Advanced Practice Nursing students in the Master's curriculum. In 2013, UCSF was funded by the Health Resources Services Administration to establish a nurse practitioner (NP) HIV primary care education program to expand the number of NPs prepared to provide culturally appropriate comprehensive HIV primary care. To this end, UCSF faculty have developed and validated a set of HIV Primary Care entry-level NP competencies, integrated general HIV knowledge into the NP curriculum, and enhanced our current HIV Specialty curriculum and clinical training. Described herein is UCSF's Integrated HIV/AIDS Primary Care Capacity Nurse Practitioner Program.

HIV-Related Training and Correlates of Knowledge, HIV Screening and Prescribing of nPEP and PrEP Among Primary Care Providers in Southeast United States, 2017

“…We found that only one-third of PCPs in the selected Southeast locations reported any HIV-related training; the region is clearly in need of a better-prepared HIV workforce. Our results are consistent with other scientific reports showing insufficient provider competency to address the community’s HIV-related service needs [24, 25]. Although not examined in our study, PCPs’ lack of familiarity with HIV prevention tools could potentially serve as a barrier for client uptake of screening and prevention interventions [16, 26, 27].…”

Implementation of a Standardized National HIV Curriculum in a Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Program

“…Mean scores in each of the competencies increased from "poor or fair" to "good" after completion of each of the training sessions. In contrast to other studies that integrated HIV curriculum, 9,10 the largest increase in reported knowledge was in antiretroviral therapy. In addition, students indicated improvement in competencies pertaining to HIV screening, diagnosis, and prevention.…”

“…A multipronged approach is needed that includes high-quality, easily accessible, up-to-date HIV education for trainees and practicing providers. 6 Although efforts have been made to improve and integrate HIV curriculum in schools of nursing, 9,10 little has been done to standardize the integration of HIV curriculum and competencies related to HIV care in primary care NP programs. The need for standardized HIV education in NP programs is further highlighted by persistent gaps in knowledge related to HIV prevention including testing behaviors and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) among NPs.…”

HIV Primary Care Curriculum Improves HIV Knowledge, Confidence and Attitudes

“…17 Recently, a series of articles have been published on national HIV workforce capacity development describing HIV specialty programs for NPs in master's and doctor of nursing practice programs. 18 Although these specialty programs have been highly successful in enrolling and graduating students with HIV expertise, the number of students trained to date will not address the projected needs for an HIV primary care workforce.…”