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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Christine M. Heusner, MA, Steven R. Truax, PhD, and David S. Webb, MS. HIV Prevention Research and Evaluation Section, California Dept. of Health Services, Office of AIDS, 611 North 7th Street, Suite A, Sacramento, CA 95814-0208
Background: The California State Office of AIDS (OA) maintains a comprehensive information system for its HIV Counseling and Testing (HIV C&T) programs. It was developed in part to address quality assurance (QA) issues in OA-funded HIV test sites. The system provides a mechanism to collect data about HIV counselors, training, test sites, and clients testing for HIV. The data include indicators related to the quality of HIV counseling. Methods: An analysis examining three years of statewide HIV C&T data (1998-2000) focused on statewide HIV counselor information including training attendance, HIV counseling workload volume and yearly turnover rates. Data were analyzed using SAS software. Results: A small proportion of HIV counselors (10%) provided the majority of the HIV risk assessment (RA) counseling workload (60%). Average RA counseling workload was very low--fewer than three clients per week. Counselors with the heaviest workload were less likely to turnover within a year (11%), compared to low-volume workload counselors (58%). Half of the participants who attended HIV counselor training did not go on to provide HIV counseling at OA-funded test sites. Conclusions: HIV counseling quality may be affected by the low volume of HIV counseling maintained by the majority of counselors. HIV C&T site managers must create higher HIV counseling workloads among low service volume staff: the counselors stand to enhance their skill level and are less likely to quit. Findings have led to changes in training utilization policy.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Quality Assurance, Public Health Service
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.