A Pilot Study of an Online HIV Stigma Training for Nursing Students in Iran

July 17, 2024 updated by: University of California, San Francisco

Reducing Stigmatizing Attitudes and Behaviors of Nursing Students in Simulated Clinical Visits of Patients Living With HIV in Iran

In this study, the investigators will assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of online HIV stigma training in reducing stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors of nursing students in simulated clinical visits of patients living with HIV compared to an online HIV epidemiology training with no specific content on stigma.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Iran has the highest burden of HIV in the Middle East. However, only 42% of Iranians living with HIV are diagnosed and 28% on antiretroviral therapy. The largest gap in the continuum of HIV care is diagnosis. Due to sociocultural and religious beliefs, HIV- associated stigma and drug use stigma are exceedingly high, and sex outside of marriage, or sex of man with another man are considered to be "sinful" behaviors. These intersectional stigmas (stigma towards drug use, sexism, and homophobia) in addition to HIV stigma are major barriers for many people at risk for or living with HIV to engage in HIV testing or treatment. Our prior studies found that health providers have limited clinical encounters with people living with HIV (PLWH) and have no HIV stigma training. This lack of training can lead to stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors towards people at risk for HIV or PLWH. The highest HIV stigmatizing behaviors was reported in nurses and physician assistants. These data, coupled with the extreme marginalization of key populations at high risk for HIV in Iran, call for the development of new ways to train nurses to reduce HIV-related stigma in clinical settings. The investigators propose to develop, and field test an HIV stigma online training including simulated patients living with HIV for nursing school students. In a randomized controlled trial, the investigators will assess the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of the online HIV stigma training in reducing stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors of nursing students in simulated clinical visits of patients living with HIV compared to an online HIV epidemiology training with no specific content on stigma. Successful development of the HIV stigma training and simulated patients at risk for or living with HIV will set the stage for developing a larger trial of nurses and other health providers which can lead to an effective and scalable training program to reduce HIV-related stigma in clinical settings and improve engagement in HIV testing and care services. The investigators from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), will lead and co-investigate the project, respectively. They will collaborate with teams from Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KMU), Iran, and Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU) in the USA.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

70

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Currently nursing students in their year 3 or 4 of training
  • Kerman Medical University (KMU) nursing schools

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Nursing student in their year 1 and 2
  • Students of other fields and other universities

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Intervention
Nursing students will be assigned to the intervention group and will receive online HIV-related stigma training.
Behavioral: The online HIV-related stigma training
The intervention is an online HIV-related stigma training that takes 6 hours in 4 weeks to be completed.
Other: Control
Nursing students will be assigned to the online HIV epidemiology training with no specific content on stigma.
Behavioral: The online HIV epidemiology training with no specific content on stigma
Nursing students will be trained in an online HIV epidemiology training with no specific content on stigma. It will take 6 hours in 4 weeks to complete the training.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Stigma score
Time Frame: Up to 4 weeks before and after intervention
All nursing students will complete a validated stigma scale before and after the training interventions.
Up to 4 weeks before and after intervention
Behavioral manifestations of HIV stigma
Time Frame: Up to 4 weeks before and after intervention
Before and after the training interventions, all nursing students will meet with a randomly selected simulated patient for an HIV visit. These visits will be video recorded and will be coded and scored for stigmatizing behaviors.
Up to 4 weeks before and after intervention
Empathy score
Time Frame: Up to 4 weeks before and after intervention
All nursing students will complete a validated empathy scale before and after the training interventions.
Up to 4 weeks before and after intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The attitudes and behaviors of nursing students after the online HIV stigma training
Time Frame: Three months after the intervention
We will qualitatively examine study participants' real-world behaviors with HIV and at-risk patients to (1) explore if behaviors learned during the intervention carry on in real-world settings, (2) better understand how behaviors are manifested in natural settings, and (3) explore best methods to assess behaviors in real-world scenarios
Three months after the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, San Francisco

Collaborators

Fogarty International Center of the National Institute of Health
Ponce Health Sciences University
Kerman University of Medical Science

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ali Mirzazadeh, PhD, University of California, San Francisco

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

September 15, 2024

Primary Completion (Estimated)

September 15, 2025

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 2, 2024

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 17, 2024

First Posted (Actual)

July 19, 2024

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 19, 2024

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 17, 2024

Last Verified

July 1, 2024

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 23-38482
  • R01TW012408 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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