Development of a Clinical Nursing Practice Guideline in Counseling for HIV Testing among at Risk Populations
Keywords:
Nursing practice guideline development, HIV counseling and testing, Evidence-based practice, Linkage to care, Populations at risk for HIV infectionAbstract
This research and development study aimed to develop a clinical nursing practice guideline for HIV counseling and testing services among at-risk populations using Soukup’s framework. The study was conducted in three phases: 1) clinical problem identification, 2) evidence searching and synthesis, and 3) guideline development. Evidence was searched using the PICO framework across 10 databases from 2019 to 2025. Full-text articles in Thai and English involving at-risk populations aged 15 - 49 years were screened. Fifteen articles met the quality appraisal using Polit and Beck’s criteria, and 7 were selected for evidence synthesis. The synthesized evidence was developed into the guideline and validated by 3 experts using the Thai version of the AGREE II instrument.
The results showed the developed clinical nursing practice guideline achieved an overall appraisal score of 95.99%, indicating an excellent level of quality and the overall evaluation showed that 77.78% of the assessed criteria, were rated at a good level. It provides structured steps based on the 5Cs framework: consent, confidentiality, counseling, correct test results, and linkage to care covering the continuum from screening to treatment referral. Thus, this developed nursing practice guideline can be pilot-tested by nurses within HIV counseling and testing service among populations at risk for HIV infection.
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