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

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.