Improving Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Counseling at a Military Women's Health Care Clinic to Champion CDC and Defense Health Agency Recommendations.

This article focuses on a quality improvement project aimed at increasing provider knowledge and counseling practices regarding pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention among sexually active women at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Gynecologic Surgery and Obstetrics clinic. Following an educational intervention and implementation of a standardized intake form, providers demonstrated improved knowledge and comfort with PrEP and Defense Health Agency (DHA) guidelines, with a statistically significant increase in documented PrEP counseling, though the target counseling rate of 70% was not met. The study highlights persistent gaps between provider knowledge and routine counseling behavior, suggesting multifactorial barriers beyond provider education, and emphasizes the need for further research on patient perceptions and systemic approaches to enhance PrEP uptake in the female military population.