A Qualitative Systematic Review (Meta-Synthesis) of the Provision and Management of HIV Testing from a Health Professional Perspective

Project Duration

May 2013 - July 2014

Funder

National HIV Nurses Association

Aims

To explore and synthesise health professional’s views on, and experiences of, HIV testing.

Objectives

1. To describe health professional’s experiences of conducting HIV testing
2. To identify ways in which client or provider characteristics such as gender, sexuality, socio-economic status, age, ethnicity, culture, professional background or professional role influence HIV testing practice
3. From a health professional’s perspective, to identify personal factors, practices or contexts that support or hinder HIV testing provision
4. From a health professional’s perspective, to identify personal factors, practices or contexts that facilitate or hinder the management of client or provider anxiety during HIV testing
5. From a health professional’s perspective, to identify personal factors, practices or contexts that facilitate or hinder the management of a new HIV diagnosis
6. From a health professional’s perspective, to identify personal factors, practices or contexts that facilitate or hinder health promotion around sexual risk and other life style issues during HIV testing

Methods

Systematic review.

The systematic review team consists of experienced HIV nurses/academic researchers, an HIV nursing practice expert, an expert in systematic reviewing and a senior librarian. This combination will ensure that the review will be conducted with utmost rigour. In addition, the skill mix will ensure that the findings will be interpreted and disseminated in ways that are relevant to the day to day needs and priorities of practising nurses/nurse managers, but can also be used to inform future research or educational developments.

Stage of Development

The findings of the review will be disseminated in several different ways according to the different needs of practitioners, managers, policy makers and researchers, as follows:

A final project report will be submitted to NHIVNA by June 2014.

An abstract will be submitted to the June 2014 NHIVNA conference for oral or poster presentation.

A short summary of the review findings will be submitted for publication in HIV Nursing by September 2014.

A detailed academic paper based on the review will be submitted for publication in an international peer reviewed nursing journal by September 2014.

A paper outlining the methods and process of qualitative systematic reviews for Evidence Based Nursing will be submitted to HIV Nursing by March 2014.