Knowledge, skills, and attitudes of pharmacy students toward the care of people living with HIV: A scoping review.

OBJECTIVE

To map the literature on the development and evaluation of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of pharmacy students concerning the care of people living with HIV (PLHIV).

METHOD: A scoping review was conducted in October 2025, following the methodology of the JBI Manual. Four databases and gray literature were searched using descriptors related to 'HIV' and 'Pharmacy Students'. Two reviewers independently screened the titles, abstracts, and full-text articles according to the eligibility criteria and subsequently extracted the data. The findings were presented descriptively.

RESULTS

The initial search yielded a total of 832 articles, of which 19 articles were included. Of these, only six studies described the development of pharmacy students' knowledge and/or attitudes toward the care of PLHIV, reporting a combination of teaching approaches. Active methodologies were the highlight, used alone in three studies and combined with traditional methodologies in two of them. All 19 included articles addressed the evaluation of pharmacy students' knowledge and/or attitudes toward the care of PLHIV. Of these, 12 studies assessed both knowledge and attitudes; three studies assessed knowledge only; and four studies assessed attitudes only. No study reported on the development or evaluation of students' skills. Most of the studies (n = 11) reported on the validity of the instruments used to evaluate knowledge and/or attitudes.

CONCLUSION

The development of pharmacy students' knowledge and/or attitudes is carried out through different pedagogical approaches, with an emphasis on active teaching methodologies, employed alone or in combination. The studies evaluated both knowledge and attitudes toward the care of PLHIV.