Decline Expected in HIV Care Providers in Next Five Years

FRIDAY, Nov. 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The supply of health care professionals available to provide HIV care is expected to continue to decline over the next five years, according to research published in the November/December issue of the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care.

Andrea Norberg, D.N.P., R.N., from the Rutgers School of Nursing in Newark, New Jersey, and colleagues conducted an anonymous survey of 1,004 prescribing clinicians currently providing HIV-related health care.

The researchers found that clinicians who were younger and Black, advanced practice registered nurses, and family medicine physicians were more likely to report continuing with the same number of patients or increasing the number of patients in their HIV practice in the next five years. However, 17.8 percent of respondents reported plans to stop HIV clinical care wholly or to decrease the number of people living with HIV in their practice over the next five years. Retirement, administrative burden, and burnout were the most common reasons for leaving.

"Our study provides new insights into the numbers and characteristics of clinicians who will be available to provide HIV care in the coming years," Norberg said in a statement. "This information will inform efforts to build the HIV workforce amid the ongoing shift from specialist care to primary care strategies."

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