Barriers and facilitators of universal HIV screening among internal medicine residents

Adoption of universal HIV screening has been low despite national recommendations.

To describe the barriers and facilitators to adoption of universal HIV screening in a low-prevalence setting.

Qualitative, thematic analysis of focus group discussions among internal medicine residents who introduced universal HIV screening into their primary care practice in Madison, Wisconsin.

Deductive and inductive codes constructed a hybridized thematic analysis model. Deductive codes stemmed from a knowledge-attitude-behavior framework for physician nonadherence to guidelines. Inductive codes emerged from the focus group discussions and were embedded into broader deductive codes to provide an HIV-specific model.

Residents were knowledgeable and had positive attitudes toward recommendations for universal HIV screening. Residents felt the majority of their patients were receptive to HIV screening, especially when introduced with normalizing techniques and reference to an expert authority such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They still perceived patient discussions as challenging due to stigma surrounding HIV and patients' perceptions of being at low risk. Residents employed individualized electronic medical record cues as a memory aid to discuss the issue.

This qualitative study of internal medicine residents training in an area with low HIV prevalence suggests that stigma and patient perception of being at low risk are barriers that should be addressed to effectively integrate universal HIV screening into primary care.