The Relationship Between Attitudes Toward Persons Who Are Gay and Persons With AIDS, and HIV and AIDS Knowledge

Attitudes Toward HIV Among Health Professions Students in the Southeastern United States: Implications for Interprofessional Education

“…These findings support the expansion of sexual health education for providers, which is sorely lacking in health professions training programs the United States (Ford, Barnes, Rompalo, & Hook, 2013). In other words, rather than instituting an HIV-specific education module as suggested in previous studies (e.g., Carney et al, 1994), implementing a broader interprofessional sexual health curriculum could increase students' comfort and competence with a range of interrelated issues including HIV, healthy sexuality, sexual dysfunction, and sexual orientation and gender identity (Ford et al, 2013;West et al, 2012). In addition, multidisciplinary training in sexual health could improve future providers' ability to communicate with colleagues from other disciplines about these often-overlooked topics in a forthright, informed, and culturallycompetent manner.…”

“…Furthermore, despite the expanding role of mental health providers in multidisciplinary HIV care, research has largely overlooked psychology trainees' attitudes toward HIV (for exceptions see : Carney, Werth, & Emanuelson, 1994;Fliszar & Clopton, 1995), and no studies have investigated how they compare to attitudes of students in other disciplines. Moreover, differences in trainees' personal attributes and educational characteristics have been found to explain varying attitudes toward HIV, such as knowledge, education, or clinical experience relevant to HIV (Carney et al, 1994), or attitudes toward LGBT individuals (Kopacz et al, 1999), which could be targeted in interprofessional training. While personal attributes related to attitudes toward HIV are not always modifiable (e.g., age, religiosity; Andrewin & Chien, 2008), trainees' awareness of factors that may render them more vulnerable to positive or negative biases about PLWH may be beneficial when working in multidisciplinary teams.…”

HIV/AIDS Knowledge Among Professional Counselors and Counseling Students in Ohio

“…What's more, less than a dozen acquired knowledge through a presentation within their community (n = 11), and almost none reported attending a professional counseling continuing education opportunity for HIV/AIDS knowledge (n = 2). With knowledge as a precursor to skill (Carney et al, 1996;Hunt, 1996) these results may provide hope that counselors have at least a basic working knowledge about HIV/AIDS which in turn benefits the clients with which they interact. The impetus of such knowledge by counselors is arguably important for the prevention of infection, reduction of stigma and discrimination, facilitation of informed conversation with clients and/or families, rapport building, and increased competence.…”

“…Knowledge is a precursor to skill development, which in turn contributes to comfort level in the application of both (Carney et al, 1996;Hunt, 1996). Consequently, determining current knowledge level of professional counselors and counseling students is needed to better understand their HIV/AIDS educational needs.…”

Fear of AIDS Among Faculty Members and Student Affairs Administrators

“…Several stidies examinin g fear of AIDS among college students have suggested the existence of a positive correlation between fear of AIDS and homophobia and an inverse correlation between knowledge ofAIDS and fear of the disease (Carney Werth, & Emanuelson, 1994;D'AugeHi & Rose, 1990;Herek, 1988;Katzman, Mukolland, & Sutherland, 1988;Walters, 1990Walters, , 1992. These studies also found men to be more fearful of AIDS than women.…”