HIV Prevention and Management
Course #24-312 - $15 -
- Participation Instructions
- Review the course material online or in print.
- Complete the course evaluation.
- Review your Transcript to view and print your Certificate of Completion. Your date of completion will be the date (Pacific Time) the course was electronically submitted for credit, with no exceptions. Partial credit is not available.
More people are now living with HIV than ever before, and the number of people dying from HIV/AIDS-related causes is decreasing. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians will likely play a role in caring for patients with HIV at some point in their careers. In order to help care for patients with HIV, it's important to understand the modes of transmission, prevention, related infections, and therapies used to treat HIV. Adherence is extremely important for HIV treatment success, so pharmacy teams should focus on detecting adherence issues with antiretroviral meds and employing techniques to help improve adherence.
This course is designed for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in all practice settings.
The purpose of this course is to help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in all settings develop a better knowledge base from which they can help care for patients with HIV/AIDS.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Identify HIV/AIDS modes of transmission, including transmission from a healthcare worker to a patient and the patient to the healthcare worker.
- Describe infection control procedures, including universal precautions.
- Define the epidemiology of HIV/AIDS.
- Identify related infections, including tuberculosis (TB).
- Describe clinical management, prevention, and current Florida law on AIDS and its impact on testing, confidentiality of test results, and treatment of patients.
- Explain information on the State of Florida law on HIV/AIDS and its impact on testing, reporting, the offering of HIV testing to pregnant women, and partner notification issues pursuant to Sections 381.004 and 384.25, Florida Statutes.
Flora Harp, PharmD, is an Editor at TRC Healthcare. She obtained her PharmD degree from Wayne State University. She then completed a community practice residency at CVS Health, focused on corporate clinical support. After completing her residency, Flora went on to hold different roles at CVS Health, where she supported various clinical services and programs. She also spent time as a formulary management pharmacist for Medicare Part D plans at Prime Therapeutics. Prior to joining TRC Healthcare in 2016, Flora was a Clinical Services Manager at Thrifty White Pharmacy, where she oversaw various clinical programs including immunizations, rapid diagnostic testing, medication therapy management, and testing of innovative clinical service models in collaboration with payers, accountable care organizations, manufacturers, and others. She also helped support the early stages of seeking URAC accreditation for their growing specialty pharmacy business.
Contributing faculty, Flora Harp, PharmD, has disclosed no relevant financial relationship with any product manufacturer or service provider mentioned.
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The role of implicit biases on healthcare outcomes has become a concern, as there is some evidence that implicit biases contribute to health disparities, professionals' attitudes toward and interactions with patients, quality of care, diagnoses, and treatment decisions. This may produce differences in help-seeking, diagnoses, and ultimately treatments and interventions. Implicit biases may also unwittingly produce professional behaviors, attitudes, and interactions that reduce patients' trust and comfort with their provider, leading to earlier termination of visits and/or reduced adherence and follow-up. Disadvantaged groups are marginalized in the healthcare system and vulnerable on multiple levels; health professionals' implicit biases can further exacerbate these existing disadvantages.
Interventions or strategies designed to reduce implicit bias may be categorized as change-based or control-based. Change-based interventions focus on reducing or changing cognitive associations underlying implicit biases. These interventions might include challenging stereotypes. Conversely, control-based interventions involve reducing the effects of the implicit bias on the individual's behaviors. These strategies include increasing awareness of biased thoughts and responses. The two types of interventions are not mutually exclusive and may be used synergistically.