| Learning Objective #1: Explore personal and contextual circumstances affecting the ability to adhere to complex and dynamic treatment regimens as perceived by HIV-infected women balancing multiple comorbidites | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Examine strategies designed to improve the effectiveness of health care provider interactions with HIV-infected women, so that adherence-promoting resources are readily available |
Design: This exploratory study was a distinct qualitative project that followed a subsample of HIV-infected women over a two-year timeframe using multiple, semistructured interviews.
Population, Sample, Setting, Years: This study's purposive subsample was drawn from 55 partipants voluntarily recruited throughout Wisconsin during 2000-2001 for participation in a larger, NIH-funded study of HIV-infected women (RO1 NR04840).
Concept or Variables Studied Together or Intervention and Outcome Variables: Concepts studied focus on health-related experiences of seropositive women that include interactions with healthcare providers, symptom management strategies, and factors associated with initiation and adherence to a complex plan of care encompassing diagnoses of HIV and additional comorbidites.
Methods: Multi-stage narrative analysis was the primary analytic approach utilized to examine 50 transcripts obtained from taped interviews with five diverse women (each woman participating in ten 2-hour interviews over 24 months).
Findings: Findings depict complex illness stories that demonstrate both strengths and concerns of women as they struggle to balance everchanging symptomatology with a healthcare system inconsistent with their needs. Characteristics desired in a competent provider are defined, along with recommendations to use in facilitating the ability of HIV-infected women to initiate and manage complex treatment plans.
Conclusions: Qualitative findings suggest that ineffective interactions with providers contribute to the inability of HIV-infected women with multiple comorbidites to initiate and manage treatment recommendations. Conversely, interacting with providers that participants describe as competent, caring and consistent, enhances a woman's ability to incorporate complex treatment plans into her daily life.
Implications: An accurate understanding of HIV-infected women with multiple comorbidities will assist the healthcare provider to develop relevant and effective strategies, designed to anticipate the needs of chronically ill women as they maneuver through the intricate web of healthcare. These interventions should improve the patient-provider relationship, thereby, enhancing a woman's ability to adhere.
Back to Living with HIV
Back to 14th International Nursing Research Congress
Sigma Theta Tau International
10-12 July 2003