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Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures forced sexual health services to engage with patients remotely. We aimed to understand perceived barriers and facilitators to the provision of digital sexual health services during the first months of the pandemic. Methods: An online...

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Autores principales: Lunt, Alexandria, Llewellyn, Carrie, Bayley, Jake, Nadarzynski, Tom
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593338/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34106016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09564624211023018
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author Lunt, Alexandria
Llewellyn, Carrie
Bayley, Jake
Nadarzynski, Tom
author_facet Lunt, Alexandria
Llewellyn, Carrie
Bayley, Jake
Nadarzynski, Tom
author_sort Lunt, Alexandria
collection PubMed
description Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures forced sexual health services to engage with patients remotely. We aimed to understand perceived barriers and facilitators to the provision of digital sexual health services during the first months of the pandemic. Methods: An online survey and qualitative interviews with UK sexual healthcare professionals recruited online and via snowball sampling were conducted in May–July 2020. Results: Amongst 177 respondents (72% female, 86% White, mean age = 46, SD = 9), most utilised telephone and email as their main communication channels; however, their perceived effectiveness varied (94% and 66%, respectively). Most agreed that staff needed additional training (89%), the available technology was not adequate (66%) and health professionals were hesitant to provide online consultations (46%). They had positive attitudes towards digitalisation, improving service quality and cost-effectiveness but were concerned about exacerbating health inequalities. Discussion: The study identifies a need for clear guidelines and training around the use of digital tools as well as a demand for investment in hardware and software required for the provision of remote services. Future research needs to explore the acceptability, safety and effectiveness of various digital tools to narrow health inequalities in sexual health service users.
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spelling pubmed-85933382021-11-17 Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study Lunt, Alexandria Llewellyn, Carrie Bayley, Jake Nadarzynski, Tom Int J STD AIDS Original Research Articles Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures forced sexual health services to engage with patients remotely. We aimed to understand perceived barriers and facilitators to the provision of digital sexual health services during the first months of the pandemic. Methods: An online survey and qualitative interviews with UK sexual healthcare professionals recruited online and via snowball sampling were conducted in May–July 2020. Results: Amongst 177 respondents (72% female, 86% White, mean age = 46, SD = 9), most utilised telephone and email as their main communication channels; however, their perceived effectiveness varied (94% and 66%, respectively). Most agreed that staff needed additional training (89%), the available technology was not adequate (66%) and health professionals were hesitant to provide online consultations (46%). They had positive attitudes towards digitalisation, improving service quality and cost-effectiveness but were concerned about exacerbating health inequalities. Discussion: The study identifies a need for clear guidelines and training around the use of digital tools as well as a demand for investment in hardware and software required for the provision of remote services. Future research needs to explore the acceptability, safety and effectiveness of various digital tools to narrow health inequalities in sexual health service users. SAGE Publications 2021-06-09 2021-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8593338/ /pubmed/34106016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09564624211023018 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research Articles
Lunt, Alexandria
Llewellyn, Carrie
Bayley, Jake
Nadarzynski, Tom
Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study
title Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study
title_full Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study
title_fullStr Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study
title_full_unstemmed Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study
title_short Sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study
title_sort sexual healthcare professionals’ views on the rapid provision of remote services at the beginning of covid-19 pandemic: a mixed-methods study
topic Original Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8593338/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34106016
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09564624211023018
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