Tema
Bioética y salud pública

Palabras clave
educational experiences, plwha, HIV, aids

Introducción

HIV is a global epidemic that is now considered a chronic disease (Pierret, 2000). Dental professionals play an important role in improving the care and quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), in addition to contributing to the diagnosis. Previous studies have found that the willingness to treat patients with HIV has increased over the years (Bennett and Weyant, 1995). However, some groups of professionals are still reluctant to provide treatment to HIV-positive patients (Crossley, 2004). Although some research has been done to evaluate the students' attitudes in this topic, it is not known how they relate to the treatment of positive patients in different cultural settings. This information provides new and useful information about the use of educational methods on dental treatment of HIV that is currently used in the training of dental professionals in two different cultural settings, Philadelphia U.S.A and Santiago Chile.

Objetivos

Describe the educational experiences (social, theoretical and clinical) of dental students towards PLWHA in both settings. Relate the educational experience with knowledge and attitudes toward the treatment of PLWHA in both settings.

Método

Participants were dental students in the last year of dental school (n=19 from Chile, n=23 from U.S.A. Intentional sampling was used to interview students with different perspectives and experiences in the dental treatment of PLWHA. This study was approved by the ethics committees of both universities. We conducted in-depth interviews aimed at understanding the educational and clinical experiences of students in HIV/AIDS, during their undergraduate training. The interviewers were trained and supervised by the researchers to ensure compliance with the protocols. The participants were recruited by email. The interviews were conducted until no new issues emerged and saturation was achieved. The interview tapes were transcribed verbatim, read and reread in order to be coded in a systematic and sequential manner. The qualitative analysis was conducted by two separate investigators in an ongoing review process to ensure rigor and validity. Researchers used NVivo v10.

Principales Resultados

Differential results between their educations: •Opposed to what happened to the U.S participants, the undergrad Chilean participants did not have any clinical experience with HIV+ patients. •Some Chilean participants had negative attitudes and feared becoming infected and others. Both American and Chilean dental students' had similar experienced and could be grouped in three areas: •Social: Participants perceived their teachers had positive attitude towards PLWHA and attribute it to their clinical experience. •Knowledge: Students perceived that they learned more about HIV/AIDS, in their non-formal education (conferences) than in the formal one. •Perceived behavioral control: Both students were aware of the universal precautions as part of any dental treatment. Participants did not feel prepare to provide dental treatment to PLWHA.

Conclusiones

Even though science have advanced enormously, health professionals and teachers are lacking in providing the correct knowledge and trust in their skills in order to safely treat PLWHA.