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INNOVATIONS IN FERTILITY NURSING: THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON THE DELIVERY OF PATIENT CARE
Fertility and Sterility ; 116(3 SUPPL):e31, 2021.
Article in English | EMBASE | ID: covidwho-1880904
ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE:

The WHO declared a global pandemic on 11th March 2020 for Coronavirus (COVID-19). During this time, fertility clinics around the world had to adapt very quickly in order to care for patients in a changing landscape with many clinics reducing or halting in-person clinical care during national lockdowns. This provided a unique opportunity for fertility nurses to increase engagement with patients via digital approaches. The purpose of this study was to examine the shift in fertility nursing clinical care pathways from face to face to virtual including the use of electronic patient information/ education delivery, electronic consenting platforms, and telehealth visits. understand the experience of fertility nursing care during the pandemic from a cohort of nursing professionals based in the UK and US. MATERIALSAND

METHODS:

Baseline data was collected from the EngagedMD electronic patient information and consenting platform taken (March 2019 to March 2020), and then during the first year of the pandemic (March 11th 2020 [the declaration from the WHO] to April 11th 2021), and via a survey about virtual patient engagement conducted via interviews with nursing staff currently based in fertility clinics in both the US and UK. Descriptive statistics were analysed for all the data.

RESULTS:

There was an increase from baseline of 105.32% in the use of electronic consent forms during the pandemic, an increase of 60.016% of patients who had been educated with electronic patient information modules and an increase of 102.33% of fertility nurses implementing an electronic consenting or electronic patient education tool into their clinical patient pathway. All respondents (n=28) reported that the use of electronic consenting, electronic patient information and telehealth services changed the way in which they care for fertility patients. 62% (n=17) reported that as a direct result of implementing virtual care pathways, they had saved nursing time.

CONCLUSIONS:

Evidence collected from both data sources shows that there has been a significant shift in the way that fertility nurses are caring for their patients during the pandemic. There has been a change in the way that fertility nurses provide patient care due to the need to adapt during this global pandemic. The use of electronic and virtual platforms to educate, consult and consent fertility patients has increased at a much higher level than previous years. The results suggest that the role of the fertility nurse practitioner has changed to include the implementation of virtual care pathways and that care may continue to be provided this way in the future. IMPACT STATEMENT Patient care can be delivered at a high level in a virtual way and the use of electronic platforms should be considered to save nursing administration time and to provide patients with better access to resources and information.
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Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Type of study: Experimental Studies Language: English Journal: Fertility and Sterility Year: 2021 Document Type: Article

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Collection: Databases of international organizations Database: EMBASE Type of study: Experimental Studies Language: English Journal: Fertility and Sterility Year: 2021 Document Type: Article