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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...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
SAGE Publications
2021
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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. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8593338 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | SAGE Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
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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