Issue: Increasing access to comprehensive, current HIV clinical treatment has been shown to decrease HIV disease progression. Health care clincians working in medically underserved urban and rural areas and those serving minority communities must be provided with access to education and training in order to assist in reducing disparities in access to and quality of HIV clinical care.
Approach: The HRSA, Bureau of HIV/AIDS's, National AETC Program, comprising 14 programs nationwide, provides a means of providing clinical training for minority providers and those serving minorities through targeted education initiatives and partnership with the Minority AETC. This partnership involves joint planning of clinical training for targeted clinicians in underserved communities and other clinicians in need of HIV training to increase clinical capacity thereby improving access and continuity of care.
Discussion: This partnership between the Minority AETC at Howard University and 4 regional AETCs provides a model training program nationwide. The critical components of the partnership between the Minority AETC and the Pennsylvania/MidAtlantic AETC at the University of Pittsburgh will be discussed including: The organization and content of the clinical training program, including cultural competency, methods for community case finding, addressing barriers to care, HIV treatment protocols, and recruitment of appropriate training faculty.
Conclusion: Given the disparities in HIV burden in medically underserved communities, an organized program of national scope is needed for HIV clinical training. The national AETC Program provides a model of education and training that aims to increase clinical capacity and decrease disparities in HIV care.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Describe three ways in which the regional AETCs can collaborate with the NMAETC. 2. Describe three ways in which the Pennsylvania/Mid-Atlantic AETC and the NMAETC are collaborating with regard to provider training. 3. Describe the collaborative relationship between the Pennsylvania/Mid-Atlantic AETC and NMAETC with regard to evaluation
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Providers
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: HRSA Grant #1U69HA00039-01
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.