Just Ask: Communicating Confidently About HIV, STD, and Sexual Activity

Issue: Recent studies indicate providers often fail to assess HIV/STD risk, perhaps from lack of awareness, low risk perceptions, or the difficulty and discomfort sometimes associated with such discussions.

Description: Just Ask is a web-based interactive learning experience addressing HIV/STD assessment, screening, treatment, and prevention. During a virtual visit to a healthcare facility, the learner encounters skills and strategies by meeting with experts, watches those skills in action by “shadowing” experienced providers (unbranched scenarios), and practices the skills by interacting with patients (branched scenarios).

Lessons Learned: Tying content to an authentic story was an effective strategy. Creation of branched scenarios was a complex endeavor limited less by technology than by the effort required to handcraft simulations. Filming expert physicians in improvised interactions with coached actors yielded rich and realistic, albeit unpredictable, patient-provider interactions. Debriefing became an essential component of the effort. Experts and practitioners found the course useful, useable, and appropriate.

Recommendations: Framing content in real-world contexts appears engaging. Branched and unbranched scenarios provide important, and different, learning opportunities. Further work should be done to refine and extend both scenario types. The tools and strategies from the project would likely work well with other health related topics, especially those involving person-to-person interactions.

The presentation will introduce the project, delineate the core learning objectives, demonstrate the overall learning environment, provide a walkthrough of a branched and an unbranched scenario, and discuss evaluation results and continuing efforts.

Supported by contract #200-2004-07661 from the CDC.