Transformative Encounters: A Narrative Review of Involving People Living With HIV/AIDS in Public Health Teaching

Abstract

Objectives: To collate the experiences of involvement of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in academic public health teaching to inform future public health education models involving people affected by long-term effects of other pandemics. Our goal is to describe interventions in a way that makes them accessible to potential public health teachers hoping to adapt patient involvement paradigms in their teaching of chronic illness brought on by infectious diseases.Methods: Narrative review based on a literature search in PubMed and Google Scholar up to September 2021. Fifteen articles that contained a description of a health educational intervention on HIV/AIDS that actively involved PLWHA were included.Results: Interventions either involved PLWHA as teachers and program/curriculum developers or incorporated experiential elements in which students have genuine contact with PLWHA. Creating safe spaces, recognizing PLWHA as experts, relating to each other differently were common transformative elements.Conclusion: Involving PLWHA in public health teaching have transformative and empowering outcomes, both for PLWHA and for learners. This finding should inform new teaching programs that will address the long-term effects of other pandemics such as COVID-19.