RNPilotThe Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care : JANAC2026

Nurse-Led Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Delivery to Adolescent Girls and Young Women Accessing Family Planning Services: A Pilot Study in Uganda.

Ivan Segawa, Renee Heffron, Sharon Akello and 3 others

PMID 41557259

WHAT IT FOUND

Nurses successfully delivered HIV prevention medication alongside contraception to young women in a busy Ugandan clinic.

Nearly all eligible participants started treatment immediately, and no one acquired HIV during the six-month follow-up period.

Key findings

0159 of 69 eligible young women enrolled, and 92% of eligible participants initiated PrEP on the same day.

02Retention dropped from 83% at one month to 41% at six months, with self-reported good adherence falling from 56% to 29% over the same period.

03The median duration for a nurse-led PrEP enrollment visit was 136 minutes, with routine care tasks taking approximately 95 minutes.

STILL TO COME

How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs

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What it does not show

The study was a small pilot with only 59 participants, so the results may not reflect how the program performs at scale. Adherence was measured by self-report, which can be influenced by social desirability bias; actual pill-taking may have been lower than reported. Participants were compensated for their visits, which may have improved retention compared to routine care settings without payments. The study took place in a single facility in Uganda, limiting generalizability to other contexts. Nurses were not dedicated solely to PrEP; they balanced these duties with other clinic responsibilities, which may have extended visit times.

Declared interests

The authors report no real or perceived vested interests related to this article that could be construed as a conflict of interest.

The easy way to misread this

Do not interpret the lack of new HIV infections as proof of the program's efficacy. The study was not designed to test effectiveness, had a small sample size, and relied on self-reported adherence which may have been overstated.

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