title: Qualitative Contributions to a Randomized Controlled Trial Addressing HIV/AIDS-Stigma in Medical Students.
abstract: Specialized training for healthcare professionals (HCP) in order to reduce HIV/AIDS related stigma must be part of a public health model for HIV/AIDS. Tested interventions to reduce HIV/AIDS related stigma among HCP have been mostly absent from these efforts. A qualitative approach was used to assess stigma reduction within a traditional randomized controlled design in order to better understand how our current stigma intervention worked and was understood by 2nd year medical students. After conducting a quantitative follow up survey one-year post intervention we conducted 20 in-depth qualitative interviews with a subsample of our intervention group participants as part of the overall evaluation process. Once the interviews were finished, we transcribed them and used NVivo (v.8) to organized the qualitative data. In the process of analyzing the qualitative data we identified core intervention areas participants described as useful for their training and development: (1) acquiring more HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, (2) increased skills for management of high stigma situations, and (3) the ability to identify socio-structural factors that foster HIV infection among clients. The gathered information is important in order to have a deep understanding of how attitudinal change happens as part of our intervention strategies.
authors: University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
authors: Melissa
authors: M
authors: Marzán-Rodríguez
authors: University of Puerto Rico - Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico.
authors: Nelson
authors: N
authors: Varas-Díaz
authors: University of California - San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
authors: Torsten
authors: T
authors: Neilands
keywords: HIV/AIDS; Medical Students; Puerto Rico.; Qualitative Evaluation; Randomized Controlled Trial; Stigma