90 Minute Workshop

Category: Prevention & Education

Presentation Date & Time: 03/27/98 11:00:00

HIV/AIDS training often is not accessible to rural health care providers. Inadequate practice coverage, program cost, long travel distances and not perceiving HIV as a risk in their communities, may dissuade rural providers from participating in HIV/AIDS training. To maximize training efforts for rural providers, the Mountain-Plains AETC's SPNS project compared the effectiveness of three methods known to be accessible to rural providers: self-instruction, teleconferencing and rural outreach team training. From 1994-1997, the project provided training on HIV prevention, early intervention and health promotion to over 1600 rural physicians, physician assistants and nurses. The educational content was standardized and delivered through self-instruction, teleconferencing or by programs offered in rural areas by outreach teams. The determination of the relative cost effectiveness of the three methods was a major goal of the project. Cost data were collected at the program and the individual trainee level. The effectiveness of each method was determined through a two-tiered approach using outcome and impact variables. The outcome variables were objective measures of HIV-related knowledge and self-reported ability and willingness to treat HIV-infected patients. The impact variables sought to determine the effect of training on HIV service delivery and included self-reported changes in HIV prevention and early treatment activities. The impact variables also were collected from and compared to the responses of a randomly selected group of rural providers who did not participate in the training. The cost effectiveness analysis provides some important insight into the best way to maximize training resources in rural areas. The pros and cons of each method are discussed.