The views and experiences of nurses and midwives in the provision and management of routine (provider initiated) HIV testing: protocol for a systematic review of qualitative evidence

Abstract

Review question/objective The objective of this review is to explore nurses’ and midwives’ views and experiences in the provision and management of routine (provider initiated) HIV testing in healthcare settings. The specific questions to be addressed are: 1. What are nurses’/midwives’ views and experiences of conducting routine ‘provider initiated HIV testing and counselling’ (PITC)? 2. What are nurses’/midwives’ views and experiences of establishing and managing routine HIV (PITC) testing services? 3. From a nurse/midwife’s perspective, what personal factors, practices or contexts facilitate or hinder the implementation of routine HIV (PITC) testing within their role or setting? 4. From a nurse/midwife’s perspective, what constitutes high quality care in the provision of routine HIV (PITC) testing and what factors facilitate or hinder the provision of high quality care in routine HIV (PITC) testing services? Inclusion criteria Types of participants All cadres of nurses and midwives will be considered, including those who undertake testing as part of a diverse role and those who are specifically trained as ‘HIV counsellors’. Nurses and midwives are included together, as in many countries these are not separate cadres of health professionals but represent one professional group. Preliminary searching has revealed that some research studies focus on a collective ‘provider’ or ‘counsellor’ perspective, without distinguishing the professional group. In this situation, the study will be included if more than 50% of the sample are stated to be nurses or midwives; in this case, an attempt will be made to discern the nurse/midwife view in particular, however if ‘provider’ perspectives are reported in a non-specific manner as being representative of the overall ‘provider perspective’, they will still be included as the majority of the sample are nurses/midwives. In some studies, the nurse/midwife proportion of the ‘provider’ sample may be less than 50%, but the views of nurses/midwives are reported separately to those of other providers revealing particular professional issues; in this case, the findings from the nurses/midwives will be included, but not those of the other providers. If the constitution of the ‘provider’ or ‘counsellor’ sample is not clearly specified in terms of professional group, TRUNCATED AT 350 WORDS