This guide represents a huge leap forward in the work towards reducing stigma in health facilities. It is a handbook for nursing tutors and lecturers to enable the integration of stigma reduction education into the national nursing curriculum and has been created as part of the Expanded Total Facility Approach project.
The content has been developed alongside the Nursing and Midwifery Councils in Ghana and Zambia, and with tutors, lecturers and student nurses, to ensure that the participatory exercises, which include case studies, pictures, stories and role-plays, are relevant, accessible and easy to teach in a training institution setting.
The over-riding purpose of the Guide is a commitment to making health facilities more sensitive and empathetic to the needs of people affected by HIV, and other groups who often face stigma, across sub-Saharan Africa.
We hope other countries will follow the example of Ghana, Zambia, and Tanzania by incorporating stigma and discrimination reduction into medical training curricula. This training guide is offered as a resource to support such efforts and to advance stigma-free health care for all.