Rehabilitation in the context of HIV: an interprofessional multi-stakeholder process for curriculum development

With longer survival, individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection are facing a multitude of health-related challenges due to HIV, its associated concurrent health conditions, and treatments. Despite the need for rehabilitation, few rehabilitation professionals work with people living with HIV, with many feeling they lack adequate knowledge and skills to assess and treat this population.

We describe a national multi-stakeholder consultation used to inform the development of an interprofessional curriculum for rehabilitation professionals on HIV/AIDS.

We conducted a series of focus groups and key informant interviews (either in person or by telephone) with people living with HIV, rehabilitation professionals, physicians, curriculum experts, and other HIV stakeholders. Participants were asked to describe their perceived learning needs of rehabilitation professionals and to identify relevant content and delivery methods for a future interprofessional HIV/AIDS curriculum.

Seven focus groups and 31 interviews with a total of 74 key informants were conducted, resulting in recommendations for content to include in HIV rehabilitation professional curricula and ways to deliver these curricula effectively.

A national multi-stakeholder environmental scan was a useful preliminary step to inform the development of an interprofessional curriculum for rehabilitation professionals on HIV/AIDS. Recommendations serve as scaffold from which to build content and delivery of future curricula.