title: Development of an HIV educational needs assessment tool.
abstract: The learning needs of persons with HIV/AIDS continue to grow more complex as new treatments are developed and HIV disease shifts from being a terminal to a chronic illness. Clinicians could use a simple tool to help them to focus on what clients think is important to know about living with HIV/AIDS. This article describes the development of the HIV Educational Needs Assessment Tool (HENAT). HIV+ persons (N = 363) who were receiving health care in a variety of ambulatory and institutional settings participated in this research during 1990 and 1993-1994. Factor analysis was used to shorten the instrument into a form that could be used in any nurse/client interaction. Principal axis factor extraction and varimax rotation deleted 16 items. The remaining 34 items were grouped into six factors: Treatments, Entitlements, Relationships, Preventing Infections, Social Support, and Working. Cronbach's alphas were computed and results ranged from .70 to .88. Two month test-retest correlations for a subset of participants (n = 195) ranged from .54 to .67. HENAT can be used (a) to examine differences in perception of learning needs between clients with HIV disease and their health care providers, (b) to measure shifts in learning needs over time, (c) to relate HIV-specific learning needs to length of time living with HIV disease, (d) to give clients an opportunity to assess their learning needs, and (e) as part of a larger intervention study that evaluates the effectiveness of patient education.
authors.affiliation: CUNY Hunter College, USA.
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Nokes
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kendrew
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rappaport
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jordan
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rivera
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001294:Attitude to Health; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000145:classification*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000379:methods; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires