Rodrigues Margarida G, Manão Andreia A, Tomada Nuno, Pascoal Patrícia M
School of Psychology and Life Sciences (EPCV) of Lusófona University, Lisbon, Portugal.
Lusófona University, HEI-Lab: Digital Human-Environment Interaction Labs, Lisbon, Portugal.
Int J Impot Res. 2025 Feb;37(2):116-125. doi: 10.1038/s41443-024-00864-z. Epub 2024 Mar 13.
Sexual health is fundamental for overall well-being and quality of life, making it the focus of intervention in Sexual Medicine (SM). Within the National Health Services, Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) guarantee comprehensive care in a biopsychosocial action, including in sexual health. This exploratory study aimed to investigate PCPs' perceptions about their role in SM and how to improve it. A cross-sectional online qualitative design was used, and a sample of 73 Portuguese PCPs was collected. Data was analyzed employing a summative content analysis. Three categories were established regarding how PCPs perceive their role in SM: "Protagonist", "Antagonist", and "Circumstantial". Concerning improving PCP's practice, two categories were identified: "Legitimizing Sexual Health" and "Enhancing Professional Development". In relation to SM, PCPs recognize themselves as institutional gatekeepers and comprehensive caregivers, resorting to familiar tasks to practice in a conditioned framework. To improve their role in SM, PCPs highlighted education investment, making specific suggestions for educational content, resource expedition, detailed guidelines creation, and raising provider and patient awareness beyond the biomedical scope. The results stress the need for an institutional effort to uphold PCPs' crucial role in SM to ensure adequate resource use and consistent, comprehensive sexual healthcare provision, enhancing overall patient care and placing sexual health as an essential field in primary care.
性健康是整体幸福感和生活质量的基础，使其成为性医学（SM）干预的重点。在国家医疗服务体系中，初级保健医生（PCPs）在生物心理社会行动中提供全面护理，包括性健康方面。这项探索性研究旨在调查初级保健医生对其在性医学中的角色认知以及如何改进这一角色。采用了横断面在线定性设计，并收集了73名葡萄牙初级保健医生的样本。运用总结性内容分析法对数据进行了分析。关于初级保健医生如何看待自己在性医学中的角色，确定了三个类别：“主角”、“反派”和“偶然参与者”。关于改进初级保健医生的实践，确定了两个类别：“使性健康合法化”和“加强专业发展”。在性医学方面，初级保健医生将自己视为机构守门人和全面护理者，在受限的框架内借助熟悉的任务开展工作。为了改善他们在性医学中的角色，初级保健医生强调了教育投资，并对教育内容、资源获取、制定详细指南以及提高提供者和患者在生物医学范围之外的认识提出了具体建议。结果强调需要进行机构努力，以维护初级保健医生在性医学中的关键作用，确保资源的充分利用以及提供一致、全面的性健康护理，加强整体患者护理，并将性健康作为初级保健中的一个重要领域。
