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Learning Objective 1: describe various adaptations of the Amigas and Safer Sex, Miami-Style HIV/STD prevention curriculum.
Learning Objective 2: discuss use of the curriculum with different target audiences in different settings.
HIV remains a global epidemic, and over two-thirds of young men and women around the world do not have adequate knowledge about HIV (Horton & Das, 2008). However, resources are limited in both developed and underdeveloped countries to provide prevention education. The purpose of this presentation is to describe how a theoretically-based HIV prevention curriculum was adapted for use with different target populations by nursing students through a service learning approach.
Methods:
Amigas and Safer Sex, Miami-Style is an HIV/STD prevention curriculum originally developed for college-age Hispanic women as part of the SENORITAS project, funded 2003-2009 by the U.S. Office on Women’s Health (Jones et al., 2008). Senior nursing students, as part of their community health course, were challenged to “enhance” or adapt the curriculum to meet the needs of various college-aged populations at risk for HIV. However, fidelity to core curriculum components was emphasized.
Results:
The curriculum has been adapted by multiethnic nursing students at an international university. Adaptations include focus (i.e., an expansion from primarily HIV to HIV and STDs), settings (e.g., classrooms, library, sororities, dormitories), duration (i.e., length of sessions), audiences (i.e., gender-specific versus mixed), and delivery format (i.e., male and female condom demonstrations, interactive segments, slides, laptop computers). The adapted curriculum has been delivered by over 125 nursing student peer educators to more than 700 students.
Conclusion:
The Amigas curriculum has been shown to be flexible and easily adapted to multiple settings and audiences of young college-aged adults. Additionally, the curriculum has been implemented in a cost effective manner since nursing students provided the educational sessions to meet course requirements. This approach can be used by schools of nursing in resource poor countries where HIV remains a major health crisis as well as by schools engaged in international exchange or cultural immersion programs.