Enhancing Comfortable Sex Talk: Training Nurses and other Health Care Providers to Implement the “Sister to Sister HIV Risk Reduction Intervention” in Clinical Settings

Background: African American women are disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. In the absence of an HIV vaccine, behavioral interventions are desperately needed. Nurses in primary care settings can play a key role in delivering evidence-based HIV prevention interventions to African American women. Objective: In this randomized controlled trial, we evaluated the feasibility of implementing “Sister to Sister HIV Risk Reduction Intervention,” a nurse-led, 20-minute one-on-one behavioral intervention among inner-city African American women in 3 primary care settings. Methods: Nurses and other health care providers attended an 8-hour Sister to Sister Training program to learn the intervention, practice implementing it, and receive feedback from the trainer. Training activities consisted of a discussion on sex and sexuality, examining one's own sexual bias, values and beliefs and discomfort in talking about sex and skills in making safe sex fun and pleasurable. Afterwards, the nurses implemented the intervention in their respective clinical settings. Results: The intervention: 1) demonstrated that it is feasible to translate and implement Sister to Sister in women's health clinics, and provided valuable information on the barriers and solutions in delivering the intervention in real world clinical settings; 2) provided insight into the sex education training needs of nurses and other health care providers; 3) highlighted the importance of examining one's own attitudes and values about sex and sexuality; and 4) demonstrated that knowing about sexuality can improve a nurse's ability to deal with his/her client's sexual decision-making.