Affiliations: Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Torrance, CA, USA | David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, Los Angeles,
CA, USA | Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare
System, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Note: [] Address for correspondence: David J. Martin, Ph.D., Harbor-UCLA
Medical Center, 1000 West Carson Street, Box 488, Torrance, CA 90509, USA.
Tel.: +1 310 222 3196; Fax: +1 310 222 1744; E-mail: djmartin@ucla.edu
Abstract: In addition to being an outcome, workforce reentry is a process:
People with HIV/AIDS attempting to go back to work must make initial decisions
to engage in such an attempt, they then must go through a series of steps that
may include re-education or retraining, job searches, résumé
development, and other activities. Sustaining employment, in turn, entails its
own set of activities. People attempting workforce reentry may also experience
barriers on their journeys back to work, they may employ certain strengths to
reach their goals, and they may use resources to facilitate preparation for
work. Few studies have attempted to study this process. This study was designed
to provide an initial attempt to study the process of workforce reentry.
Abstracted information from the progress notes of 104 people with HIV/AIDS
attempting workforce reentry was qualitatively analyzed using a grounded theory
approach to identify themes. Three major themes emerged with reliability:
Barriers to workforce reentry, staff-identified strengths, and resources used
in workforce-reentry efforts. Although none predicted successful workforce
reentry, participants in the study experienced substantial barriers in their
workforce-reentry efforts, staff identified significant strengths, and
participants used appropriate resources in their efforts to go back to work.
Implications for workforce-reentry programs for people with HIV/AIDS are
discussed.
