High rates of retention and viral suppression in the US HIV safety net system: HIV care continuum in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program, 2011.

Background: In the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care continuum, retention in HIV medical care and viral suppression are key goals to improve individual health outcomes and reduce HIV transmission. National data from clinical providers are lacking.

Methods: HIV providers funded by the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) annually report demographic, service, and clinical data using encrypted unique client identifiers, and data are processed and de-duplicated to create a single record for each client.

The Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI): innovations in nursing and midwifery education.

The nursing and midwifery workforce is key to improving the performance of the health system overall. Health workforce shortages are significantly influenced by the productive capacity of health professions education institutions. Long-standing underinvestment in preservice nursing and midwifery education severely limits the capacity of institutions to educate nurses and midwives in sufficient numbers, and with the necessary clinical skills, for current and anticipated population health needs.

A way forward: the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and reducing HIV incidence in the United States.

In July 2010, the Obama Administration released a National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States to refocus national attention on responding to the domestic HIV epidemic. The goals of the strategy are to reduce HIV incidence; to increase access to care and optimize health outcomes among people living with HIV; and to reduce HIV-related disparities. The strategy identifies a small number of action steps that will align efforts across federal, state, local, and tribal levels of government, and maximally impact the domestic HIV epidemic.

Essential nursing competencies related to HIV and AIDS: Executive summary.

With nearly 33 million global citizens living with HIV or AIDS, the need for a highly qualified, competent nursing workforce is critical. With the recent increase in global funding to expand access to antiretroviral therapy, there have been considerable efforts to improve the capacity of nurses to initiate and maintain antiretroviral therapy while evaluating its effectiveness, monitoring for side effects, reducing the incidence of drug-drug interactions (including drug interactions related to therapies provided by traditional healers), promoting adherence to therapies, and providing management of symptoms. Therefore, using a participatory action approach, nursing leaders from six sub-Saharan African countries collaborated to develop the essential nursing competencies related to HIV and AIDS.

Essential nursing competencies related to HIV and AIDS.

With nearly 33 million global citizens living with HIV or AIDS, the need for a highly qualified, competent nursing workforce is critical. With the recent increase in global funding to expand access to antiretroviral therapy, there have been considerable efforts to improve the capacity of nurses to initiate and maintain antiretroviral therapy while evaluating its effectiveness, monitoring for side effects, reducing the incidence of drug-drug interactions (including drug interactions related to therapies provided by traditional healers), promoting adherence to therapies, and providing management of symptoms. Therefore, using a participatory action approach, nursing leaders from six sub-Saharan African countries collaborated to develop the essential nursing competencies related to HIV and AIDS.

CARE Act planning for unmet need.

The Ryan White CARE Act, a safety net program first enacted in 1990, provides health and support services to people living with HIV (PLWH) in the U.S. through several Titles.