Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
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The number of people living with HIV infection is outstripping the number of health professionals adequately prepared to meet their needs, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. This growing gap is one of several challenges facing the effort to expand HIV testing and access to care. The report underscores the importance of health care providers and public health officials being flexible and willing to employ a variety of approaches to meet the needs of HIV-positive individuals, especially given the financial and capacity strains facing the health system.
Collaborating on care of patients and shifting tasks across providers to the extent permitted by state regulations are just two of the options that facilities could use. However, state scope-of-practice policies can hinder facilities' ability to take full advantage of such approaches, the report notes.
The majority of health care providers receive little training and experience in HIV care, especially in outpatient clinics where most routine HIV care now occurs. Increasing providers' exposure to HIV care throughout their training is crucial, said the committee that wrote the report.
The report is the third and final in a series that has explored policy barriers and capacity challenges facing officials who are charged by the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States to reduce the number of people who become infected and increase access to care. The previous reports -- HIV Screening and Access to Care: Exploring Barriers and Facilitators to Expanded HIV Testing and HIV Screening and Access to Care: Exploring the Impact of Policies on Access to and Provision of HIV Care -- identified several obstacles, including conflicting federal recommendations on HIV testing, legal requirements placed by states on how testing is conducted, policies inhibiting use of rapid HIV tests, and practices in prisons and other correctional facilities. The reports also identified possible options for programs and policies to improve health care providers' education and preparation to care for HIV-infected people, remove constraints on where and how testing is done, and reduce discrimination associated with being HIV-positive.
"There will be numerous challenges as the nation begins implementing the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy," noted Paul Cleary, dean, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., and chair of the committee that wrote the series. "These reports identify many of those challenges, but more importantly, present many practical suggestions from the research literature and experts about how to address and overcome the obstacles to a more effective and efficient HIV/AIDS strategy."
The series was sponsored by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. Established in 1970 under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine provides independent, objective, evidence-based advice to policymakers, health professionals, the private sector, and the public. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies.
Source:
National Academy of Sciences
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