title: Past experiences, current realities and future possibilities for HIV nursing education and care in Canada.
abstract: Nurses may have inadequate basic education and opportunities for continuing education in relation to HIV care. As well nurses may perpetuate and impose stigma. We developed, implemented and evaluated an educational intervention to reduce stigma and discrimination among nurses providing HIV care. The intervention used a mentorship model that brought experienced nurses in HIV care and people living with HIV together with nurses who wanted to learn more about HIV nursing care. We examined our findings in relation to past experiences, current realities and future possibilities for HIV nursing education and care in Canada. Our findings demonstrated that many nurses were interested in improving their HIV care, yet few opportunities existed for them to do so. We found that HIV nursing education and expertise were significantly different among participants and across clinical sites. This difference was visible in basic education, services offered for HIV and AIDS care, the collaborative and inter-professional nature of care, and opportunities for continuing education. Mentorship education is an effective strategy to not only address a critical void in knowledge, but also to promote a fundamental shift in attitudes. With the recent call by the World Health Organization to place nurses in key positions to provide HIV care, treatment and prevention, it is imperative to prepare nurses at both the undergraduate and graduate level, as well as those in practice, to fulfill this call.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mill
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Caine
authors.affiliation: The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Cheryl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Arneson
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maina
authors.affiliation: Department of Indigenous Education, Health and Social Work, First Nations University, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Padua
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dykeman
keywords: HIV; Intervention; Nursing; Research; Stigma