Development and psychometric testing of a scale to measure effective rural emergency transfer (RET).

Background: The process of transferring patients from small rural primary care facilities to referral facilities impacts the quality of care and effectiveness of the referral healthcare system. The study aimed to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a scale measuring requirements for effective rural emergency transfer.

Methods: An exploratory sequential design was utilized to develop a scale designed to measure requirements for effective emergency transport.

Experiences of rural nurses with emergency patient transport in a resource limited setting.

Background: Registered nurses are primary care providers during most patient transfers from rural areas. Various local conditions and circumstances impact the provision of nursing care prior to and during transportation. These include clinic staffing, uneven access to functioning equipment and other necessary infrastructure across settings, the wide-ranging clinical need for specialty care, and complex social and interpersonal circumstances that play a role in care-seeking and transport decision-making.

Evaluation of knowledge related to competency of nurse educators after participating in international outreach seminar for continuing nursing education in Myanmar.

Background And Aims: With the drastic changes brought about by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) to nursing science and education, public-private collaboration efforts have been crucial in improving skills using technology. Nurse educators are expected to expand their knowledge and develop skills both in clinical and educational institutions to be able to implement evidence-based practice and develop professional competency.

Effectiveness of handover practices between emergency department and intensive care unit nurses.

Background: Nurses from the emergency department (ED) and the intensive care unit (ICU) must interact during the handover procedure. Factors such as unit boundaries, the interaction between different specialities, patient acuities, and treatment adjustments generate specific negotiating and teamwork problems during the transition of patients from ED to ICU.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the opinions of nurses regarding the effectiveness of handover practices between nurses in the ED and ICU in a major academic hospital in Gauteng province, South Africa.

Predictors of enacted, internal, and anticipated stigma among PLHIV in New Jersey.

This article describes findings from the first statewide implementation of the People Living with HIV (PLHIV) Stigma Index in the United States. The goals of the study were to identify sources of stigma and contributing factors as a means of developing stigma-reduction interventions in New Jersey. Based on a sample of 371 PLHIV, the study found high levels of internal and anticipated stigma, particularly feelings of self-blame, anger, low self-esteem, fear of gossip, and fear of lack of sexual intimacy.

Support for PrEP Among New Jersey Health Care Workers.

We used an online survey of health care workers in New Jersey to assess awareness, perceptions, and support of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). We sampled respondents from diverse health care worker occupations, in HIV and non-HIV care settings. Of 174 participants, awareness of PrEP was high at 91% (n = 122), as was support for its use by members of at-risk groups (74%).

A qualitative description of service providers' experiences of ethical issues in HIV care.

Background: Managing HIV treatment is a complex multi-dimensional task because of a combination of factors such as stigma and discrimination of some populations who frequently get infected with HIV. In addition, patient-provider encounters have become increasingly multicultural, making effective communication and provision of ethically sound care a challenge.

Purpose: This article explores ethical issues that health service providers in the United States and Botswana encountered in their interaction with patients in HIV care.

Understanding Health Literacy for People Living With HIV: Locations of Learning.

Health literacy, including people's abilities to access, process, and comprehend health-related information, has become an important component in the management of complex and chronic diseases such as HIV infection. Clinical measures of health literacy that focus on patients' abilities to follow plans of care ignore the multidimensionality of health literacy. Our thematic analysis of 28 focus groups from a qualitative, multisite, multinational study exploring information practices of people living with HIV (PLWH) demonstrated the importance of location as a dimension of health literacy.

A multinational qualitative investigation of the perspectives and drivers of exercise and dietary behaviors in people living with HIV.

Globally, people living with HIV (PLWH) are at remarkably high risk for developing chronic comorbidities. While exercise and healthy eating reduce and mitigate chronic comorbidites, PLWH like many others, often fail to engage in recommended levels. We qualitatively examined the perspectives and contextual drivers of diet and exercise reported by PLWH and their health care providers.

90-90-90-Plus: Maintaining Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapies.

Medication adherence is the "Plus" in the global challenge to have 90% of HIV-infected individuals tested, 90% of those who are HIV positive treated, and 90% of those treated achieve an undetectable viral load. The latter indicates viral suppression, the goal for clinicians treating people living with HIV (PLWH). The comparative importance of different psychosocial scales in predicting the level of antiretroviral adherence, however, has been little studied.

HIV Task Sharing Between Nurses and Physicians in Nigeria: Examining the Correlates of Nurse Self-Efficacy and Job Satisfaction.

A global shortfall of 12.9 million health care workers has been predicted to occur in the next two decades. Task sharing between physicians and nurses, a method used to help compensate for provider shortages, was shown to improve access to antiretroviral therapy in Africa, but led to nurses performing beyond their scopes of practice.

Sexual transmission-risk behaviour among HIV-positive persons: a multisite study using social action theory.

Aim: Sexual risk behaviour was explored and described using Social Action Theory.

Background: The sexual transmission of HIV is complex and multi-factorial. Social Action Theory provides a framework for viewing self-regulation of modifiable behaviour such as condom use.

Language and Culture in Health Literacy for People Living with HIV: Perspectives of Health Care Providers and Professional Care Team Members.

Low health literacy has been linked to inadequate engagement in care and may serve as a contributor to poor health outcomes among people living with HIV and AIDS. The purpose of this paper was to examine the perspectives of health care providers and professional care team members regarding health literacy in HIV disease. A secondary data analysis was conducted from a qualitative study aimed at understanding factors that help an HIV positive person to manage their HIV disease.

Building Trust and Relationships Between Patients and Providers: An Essential Complement to Health Literacy in HIV Care.

Health literacy is important for access to and quality of HIV care. While most models of health literacy acknowledge the importance of the patient-provider relationship to disease management, a more nuanced understanding of this relationship is needed. Thematic analysis from 28 focus groups with HIV-experienced patients (n = 135) and providers (n = 71) identified a long-term and trusting relationship as an essential part of HIV treatment over the continuum of HIV care.

A Cross-Sectional Relationship Between Social Capital, Self-Compassion, and Perceived HIV Symptoms.

Context: Individual resources of social capital and self-compassion are associated with health behaviors and perceived symptoms, suggesting that both are positive resources that can be modified to improve a person's symptom experience.

Objectives: The aim was to examine the relationship between self-compassion and social capital and its impact on current HIV symptom experience in adult people living with HIV (PLWH). We further explored the impact of age on this relationship.

Engagement with Care, Substance Use, and Adherence to Therapy in HIV/AIDS.

Engagement with care for those living with HIV is aimed at establishing a strong relationship between patients and their health care provider and is often associated with greater adherence to therapy and treatment (Flickinger, Saha, Moore, and Beach, 2013). Substance use behaviors are linked with lower rates of engagement with care and medication adherence (Horvath, Carrico, Simoni, Boyer, Amico, and Petroli, 2013). This study is a secondary data analysis using a cross-sectional design from a larger randomized controlled trial (n = 775) that investigated the efficacy of a self-care symptom management manual for participants living with HIV.

Engagement with Health Care Providers Affects Self- Efficacy, Self-Esteem, Medication Adherence and Quality of Life in People Living with HIV.

The engagement of patients with their health care providers (HCP) improves patients' quality of life (QOL), adherence to antiretroviral therapy, and life satisfaction. Engagement with HCP includes access to HCP as needed, information sharing, involvement of client in decision making and self-care activities, respect and support of the HCP for the client's choices, and management of client concerns. This study compares country-level differences in patients' engagement with HCP and assesses statistical associations relative to adherence rates, self-efficacy, self-esteem, QOL, and symptom self-reporting by people living with HIV (PLHIV).

Self-compassion and risk behavior among people living with HIV/AIDS.

Sexual risk behavior and illicit drug use among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) contribute to poor health and onward transmission of HIV. The aim of this collaborative multi-site nursing research study was to explore the association between self-compassion and risk behaviors in PLWHA. As part of a larger project, nurse researchers in Canada, China, Namibia, Puerto Rico, Thailand and the US enrolled 1211 sexually active PLWHA using convenience sampling.

Associations between the legal context of HIV, perceived social capital, and HIV antiretroviral adherence in North America.

Background: Human rights approaches to manage HIV and efforts to decriminalize HIV exposure/transmission globally offer hope to persons living with HIV (PLWH). However, among vulnerable populations of PLWH, substantial human rights and structural challenges (disadvantage and injustice that results from everyday practices of a well-intentioned liberal society) must be addressed. These challenges span all ecosocial context levels and in North America (Canada and the United States) can include prosecution for HIV nondisclosure and HIV exposure/transmission.

Effect of Methadone Dose on Maintenance Treatment and Health Consequences Among Heroin Addicts in South China.

A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted with a convenience sample of 197 adults receiving methadone maintenance treatment in Kunming city, South China, in 2010. The aim of the study was to determine the association of methadone maintenance dose on a variety of treatment outcomes. Treatment modalities, the adverse reactions to methadone treatment, the physical and mental outcomes of the treatment, and risk behavior changes were assessed.

Comparison of the health-related quality of life, CD4 count and viral load of AIDS patients and people with HIV who have been on treatment for 12 months in rural South Africa.

This study compared the level of CD4 count, viral load and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) between treatment-naïve AIDS patients and a cohort of people living with HIV who have been on treatment for 12 months. This study is based on a secondary data analysis of the records of 642 people with HIV consisting of 311 treatment-naïve AIDS patients and 331 people with HIV who have been on treatment for 12 months. The study findings are mostly presented in tables and analysed using the t-test to compare HRQOL scores, CD4 count and viral load in the two groups.

Task shifting of HIV management from doctors to nurses in Africa: clinical outcomes and evidence on nurse self-efficacy and job satisfaction.

With 24% global disease burden and 3% global health workforce, the World Health Organization (WHO) designates the African region a critical workforce shortage area. Task shifting is a WHO-recommended strategy for countries with severe health worker shortages. It involves redistribution of healthcare tasks to make efficient use of available workers.