Trainee characteristics and perceptions of HIV/AIDS training quality

HIV/AIDS education and training have played a viral role in keeping health providers up to date on emerging developments and approaches. This study re ports findings from seven HIV/AIDS education and training projects. Partici pants in more than 600 training sessions described themselves, their profes sional background and their general reasons for laking the training Immedia tely following the training, they also rated the quality of their education al experience along several dimensions. Trainee characteristics were relate d to assessments of training quality, using a regression decision-tree anal ytic approach. Although effect sizes were generally small, quality ratings of the HIV/AIDS training experiences were associated with certain projects, basic trainee demographic characteristics, professional background, and ex perience in the HIV field. Greater understanding about participant characte ristics can provide clues about how these training experiences are perceive d and processed and may inform decision making about instructional HIV/AIDS curricula. (C) 2000 Sage Publications, Inc.