Date of this Version

2021

Document Type

DNP Project

Abstract

Introduction: Approved since 2012 by the Food and Drug Administration, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention has significantly evolved. Taken daily, PrEP reduces an individual’s risk of contracting new HIV infections (Eakle et al., 2018). Despite the proven effectiveness of PrEP in reducing new HIV infection among high-risk HIV-negative individuals, the percentage of Black/African American who filled prescriptions for PrEP in 2016 was only 11.2%, compared to 68.7% among Whites (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). The purpose of this scholarly project was to develop a quality improvement project by creating an educational module based on CDC’s PrEP implementation guidelines to improve barriers affecting primary care providers’ willingness to prescribe PrEP care as a prevention strategy among Black and African American men at higher risk for HIV.

Methodology: IRB approval was obtained from Florida International University. Participants included two MDs (n=2) and thirteen APRNs (n=13). A Qualtrics link was electronically provided to all participants to complete the online survey, pre-test, and post-test during a 4-week period.

Results: 15 participants completed the study. The mean of the pre-test survey was 12.58 with as standard deviation (SD) of 5.36 while the post-test survey had a mean of 17.00 with a SD of 5.95. PCPs’ knowledge increased by 25.65%, attitude by 12.63%, and behavior by 4.93%. A paired-samples t Test was performed, the two-tailed P value was 0.0004. By conventional criteria, the difference was extremely statistically significant.

Conclusion: Educational intervention was effective in improving PCPs’ knowledge, attitude, and behavior towards PrEP. Ongoing work focused on educating primary care clinicians on the implementation of PrEP and other HIV prevention strategies will be crucial in reducing and eradicating the HIV epidemic, more importantly in high-risk vulnerable population such as Black/ African heterosexual men and BMSM.

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