Newman Christy E, Fraser Doug, Ong Jason J, Bourne Christopher, Grulich Andrew E, Bavinton Benjamin R
Centre for Social Research in Health, John Goodsell Building, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
The Kirby Institute, Wallace Wurth Building, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia.
Sex Health. 2022 Dec;19(6):525-532. doi: 10.1071/SH22109.
The sexual and reproductive health care of people with HIV and those at risk of HIV has largely been delivered face-to-face in Australia. These services adapted to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with a commitment to continued care despite major impacts on existing models and processes. Limited attention has been paid to understanding the perspectives of the sexual and reproductive health care workforce in the research on COVID-19 adaptations.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted between June and September 2021 with 15 key informants representing a diverse range of service settings and professional roles in the Australian sexual and reproductive health sector. Inductive themes were generated through a process of reflexive thematic analysis, informed by our deductive interest in clinical adaptations.
The major adaptations were: triage (rapidly adapting service models to protect the most essential forms of care); teamwork (working together to overcome ongoing threats to service quality and staff wellbeing), and the intwined themes of telehealth and trust (remaining connected to marginalised communities through remote care). Despite impacts on care models and client relationships, there were sustained benefits from the scaleup of remote care, and attention to service safety, teamwork and communication.
Attending to the experiences of those who worked at the frontline of the COVID-19 response provides essential insights to inform sustained, meaningful system reform over time. The coming years will provide important evidence of longer-term impacts of COVID-19 interruptions on both the users and providers of sexual and reproductive health services.
在澳大利亚，为感染艾滋病毒者及有感染艾滋病毒风险者提供的性健康和生殖健康护理主要是面对面进行的。这些服务适应了2019年冠状病毒病（COVID-19）大流行，尽管对现有模式和流程产生了重大影响，但仍致力于持续护理。在关于COVID-19适应措施的研究中，对性健康和生殖健康护理工作人员的观点关注有限。
2021年6月至9月，对15名关键信息提供者进行了半结构化访谈，他们代表了澳大利亚性健康和生殖健康领域不同的服务环境和专业角色。通过反思性主题分析过程生成归纳主题，并参考我们对临床适应措施的演绎性兴趣。
主要的适应措施包括：分诊（迅速调整服务模式以保护最基本的护理形式）；团队合作（共同努力克服对服务质量和工作人员福祉的持续威胁），以及远程医疗和信任这两个相互交织的主题（通过远程护理与边缘化社区保持联系）。尽管对护理模式和客户关系产生了影响，但扩大远程护理规模以及关注服务安全、团队合作和沟通仍带来了持续的好处。
关注那些在COVID-19应对前线工作的人员的经历，为随着时间推移进行持续、有意义的系统改革提供了重要见解。未来几年将提供重要证据，证明COVID-19中断对性健康和生殖健康服务的使用者和提供者的长期影响。
