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Investigation of Existing Educational Content Regarding HIV-Positive Pregnant Women in Genetic Counseling Programs

Objectives/Research Questions: The purpose of this study was to assess existing curricula regarding HIV positive pregnant women in genetic counseling graduate programs.
Methods: Genetic counseling programs were surveyed to assess existing curricula regarding prevention and treatment issues for HIV positive pregnant women. Programs were asked to identify their need for HIV-related educational materials, specifically issues and content needed to provide effective education for students and types of materials that would most benefit programs.
Results: Of the 32 graduate genetic counseling programs, 26 (81.3%) responded to the survey. The data show that 65.4% currently offer HIV education in their curriculum. With regard to development of educational materials to address HIV in pregnancy, 64.3% (9/14) of programs that provide HIV education and 88.9% (8/9) of programs that provide no HIV education indicated they would benefit from development of these materials. The most commonly requested materials were webinars, PowerPoint presentations, and clinical case examples.
Conclusions: The results of this study indicate a need for the development of additional educational materials addressing issues specific to HIV positive pregnant women and reduction of perinatal transmission. Through the Pennsylvania/MidAtlantic AIDS Education and Training Center, web-based seminars and other educational materials were developed for distribution to genetic counseling programs.
Implications for Public Health: HIV is a major public health issue for all health-care providers who work with women of child-bearing age. Improving knowledge of HIV prevention and treatment in pregnant women is important for genetic counselors who may encounter HIV-positive pregnant women in their clinical practice.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-03302011-161235
Date29 June 2011
CreatorsChadwick, Sara Lawson
ContributorsJohn Wilbur Wilson, Elizabeth Gettig, Linda Rose Frank
PublisherUniversity of Pittsburgh
Source SetsUniversity of Pittsburgh
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-03302011-161235/
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