OFID Article Assesses Outcomes of HIV Training Pathway for Residents

Graduates of a specialized HIV track for internal medicine residents enjoyed their experience, felt adequately prepared to provide HIV primary care, and most felt sufficiently trained to provide primary care for HIV-seronegative adults. Despite this, the number of graduates providing primary care for people living with HIV decreased between 2015 and 2017.

The findings come from a recent article, Building HIV Workforce Capacity through a Residency Pathway: Outcomes and Challenges, published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, assessing satisfaction among graduates of the University of Washington’s HIV Medicine Pathway. The track was created in 2008 within the institution’s internal medicine residency program to train residents to provide comprehensive care for people living with HIV and to help address an expected shortage of HIV physicians.

When asked in surveys about barriers to finding or sustaining jobs in HIV primary care, the reason most cited by graduates no longer providing this care was the perception that fellowship training was a necessary credential or that graduates felt they had to compete with ID-trained physicians. The article’s authors suggest evaluations of long-term outcomes of similar training programs and stronger support for HIV primary care career development.