Background: NICE guidelines suggest that patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalitis (CFS/ME) should be managed in Primary Care. Practice Nurses are increasingly being involved in the management of long-term conditions, so are likely to also have a growing role in managing CFS/ME. However their attitudes to, and experiences of patients with CFS/ME and its management must be explored to understand what barriers may exist in developing their role for this group of patients. The aim of this study was to explore Practice Nurses' understanding and beliefs about CFS/ME and its management.
Advancements in the diagnosis and treatment of testicular cancer now give a five-year survival rate of 97.2%. Delayed presentation remains the primary cause of poor outcome and recommendations have stressed that men, particularly those with risk factors, should undertake regular testicular self-examination. This study aimed to determine testicular self-examination knowledge and practices amongst 740 unselected men attending a genitourinary medicine clinic via questionnaire survey. Of respondents, 75.8% of men had heard of testicular cancer, and 79.9% had heard of testicular self-examination. Of these, 41% of men had been taught testicular self-examination; 73.9% of them by a doctor or nurse. Importantly, 79.2% had previously performed testicular self-examination. The most common reason for not performing testicular self-examination was 'Don't really know what to look for' (59.5%). Men previously taught testicular self-examination were 11.5 times more likely to perform the practice than those untaught. Of respondents, 74.1% wanted more information regarding testicular self-examination whilst attending the clinic. This study shows an increased level of testicular self-examination amongst genitourinary medicine attendees than has been previously demonstrated in other patient groups. There remains room for improvement via further health promotion and research on the effectiveness of testicular self-examination.
With recent increases in annual gonorrhoea incidence and disproportionately high infection rates amongst men who have sex with men, the clinical picture of disseminated gonococcal infection is changing. We present two cases where consideration of, and investigation for, disseminated Neisseria gonorrhoeae infection provided the answer when routine inpatient diagnostics had been unsuccessful.
paramount importance. I am confident that giving students a framework of standard questions and phrases and then allowing them the combined privacy and space to practice the use of such in a safe learning environment will improve their confidence in sexual history taking.
insight into the type of information patients most prefer to see in order to enhance patient experience. Aim(s)/objectives To conduct a patient survey of preferences for information provided in sexual health clinic waiting rooms. Methods 133 consecutive patients attending the integrated clinic were asked to complete a simple questionnaire covering the following areas: (1) how much attention is given to the information available; (2) Which types of information are most useful; (3) Preference for pictures, written text or a combination; (4) Importance of information that can be taken away. Results 53% looked at most of the information, 32% only read what looked interesting or relevant while 15% took little notice. Facts about STI's were the most useful (64%), followed by prevention messages (51%), contact details of other organisations/ services (49%), information about local/national campaigns (41%) and boards with specific themes (e.g. Valentine's day, Fresher's Week) (33%). 55% preferred a combination of pictures and text, 41% mainly text and 37% mainly pictures. 74% attached a high importance to information which could be taken away. Discussion/conclusion 85% of patients paid significant attention to the information presented in the waiting room. Patients found factual information about STI's to be most useful followed by prevention messages. There was a clear preference for messages that combined text with pictures. -2015-052126.196 Introduction Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) is the commonest curable STI worldwide. UK prevalence is comparatively lower but TV remains an important cause of genital symptoms. National guidelines recommend NAATs for TV testing due to their high sensitivity. Since 2012 we have utilised Gen-Probe APTIMA TV assays for symptomatic females, males with recurrent urethritis and contacts. Aims Assess the effectiveness of our current TV NAAT testing practice. Methods Retrospective casenote review of patients tested for TV in an inner city sexual health clinic between 01/01/14-31/03/14. Results 961 (882F, 79M) patients were included. Median age was 24 (range 15-67), 445 (46.3%) were White British. 6 (7.6%) of the men were MSM. 28 (2.9%) patients were TV NAAT positive (21F, 7M). 5 of them attended as TV contacts. 11 TVinfected females had positive microscopy. Comparing diagnostic modalities microscopy had inferior sensitivity (=0.524) but excellent specificity (=1) and NPV (=0.986). All TV-positive men were either symptomatic (4) or an asymptomatic contact (3). The TV-positive and TV-negative cohorts were compared: TV incidence was significantly associated with increasing age, Black Caribbean ethnicity and attending as a contact; concurrent STI diagnoses and evident symptoms were not. Conclusion Our data demonstrates the superior sensitivity of NAATs over microscopy. Extending screening to asymptomatic patients is not warranted. We continue to focus TV testing on known at-risk populations.
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