The lived experiences of rural HIV social workers

ABSTRACT

HIV service providers are the primary implementers of HIV care services, but rural HIV service providers are under researched. We used an interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore rural HIV service providers’ lived experiences of working in HIV care, who work in a rural region of a Midwestern state in the United States. From July to August 2019, 15 HIV service providers participated in a one-hour semi-structured telephone interview that elicited their experiences working in the rural HIV care continuum. Participants were tired of constantly educating and working to reduce HIV stigma; however, they received support from family and friends once they educated them about HIV. Participants felt they lacked control over systems and they developed emotional-based coping to address constant occupational stressors. Findings highlight the importance of resiliency and advocacy research and practice across ecological levels.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural
• HIV social work
• HIV service provider
• AIDS service organization
• interpretative phenomenological analysis

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the HIV service providers who participated in this study and for the AIDS service organizations who were our collaborators. We would like to thank Dr. Michael Reece who provided funding for incentives.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.