Jonathan Bayuo, Frances Kam Yuet Wong, Arkers Kwan Ching Wong, Prince Kyei Baffour, Loretta Yuet Foon Chung
{"title":"A comprehensive nurse-led aftercare programme addressing post-burn sexual well-being of adult burn survivors: a randomised controlled trial.","authors":"Jonathan Bayuo, Frances Kam Yuet Wong, Arkers Kwan Ching Wong, Prince Kyei Baffour, Loretta Yuet Foon Chung","doi":"10.1186/s12912-024-02461-3","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Sexual well-being is a key part of being human yet often remains shrouded in secrecy and poorly addressed in the clinical setting. The impact of burns and its long-term sequelae often lead to concerns regarding body image disturbance, self-esteem issues, and interpersonal challenges which can impact on an individual's sexual well-being. However, existing post-burn rehabilitation programmes usually lack components addressing concerns regarding sexual well-being. As a part of a larger project, we developed a nurse-led aftercare programme, and this study sought to examine the effects of the programme in addressing the post-burn sexual well-being of adult burn survivors.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A randomised controlled trial approach was used. Sixty burn survivors aged ≥ 18 years with burn size ≥ 10% total burn surface area were assigned to intervention and control groups. Participants in the intervention group underwent the nurse-led aftercare programme which involved pre-discharge support and proactive follow-up support over 8 weeks. The sexuality subscale of the Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief was used to evaluate the outcome of interest. Data were collected at three timepoints: baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1), and follow-up (T2).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Using a corrected p value of 0.017, the study observed only statistically significant time effect at both T1 and T2. Both group and interaction effects were statistically insignificant for this outcome.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Issues regarding sexual well-being are often considered sacred and may be challenging to discuss. Thus, a longer duration of the intervention may be considered with ongoing training of practitioners to identify and resolve emerging challenges. Despite the non-significant interaction and group effects, including sexual well-being support in post-burns rehabilitation programmes will facilitate access to and utilisation of the service among burn survivors who may need it.</p><p><strong>Trial registration: </strong>Prospectively registered on 14th August 2020.</p><p><strong>Clinicaltrials: </strong>govNCT04517721.</p>","PeriodicalId":48580,"journal":{"name":"BMC Nursing","volume":"23 1","pages":"818"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11555934/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"BMC Nursing","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02461-3","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NURSING","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background: Sexual well-being is a key part of being human yet often remains shrouded in secrecy and poorly addressed in the clinical setting. The impact of burns and its long-term sequelae often lead to concerns regarding body image disturbance, self-esteem issues, and interpersonal challenges which can impact on an individual's sexual well-being. However, existing post-burn rehabilitation programmes usually lack components addressing concerns regarding sexual well-being. As a part of a larger project, we developed a nurse-led aftercare programme, and this study sought to examine the effects of the programme in addressing the post-burn sexual well-being of adult burn survivors.
Methods: A randomised controlled trial approach was used. Sixty burn survivors aged ≥ 18 years with burn size ≥ 10% total burn surface area were assigned to intervention and control groups. Participants in the intervention group underwent the nurse-led aftercare programme which involved pre-discharge support and proactive follow-up support over 8 weeks. The sexuality subscale of the Burn Specific Health Scale-Brief was used to evaluate the outcome of interest. Data were collected at three timepoints: baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1), and follow-up (T2).
Results: Using a corrected p value of 0.017, the study observed only statistically significant time effect at both T1 and T2. Both group and interaction effects were statistically insignificant for this outcome.
Conclusion: Issues regarding sexual well-being are often considered sacred and may be challenging to discuss. Thus, a longer duration of the intervention may be considered with ongoing training of practitioners to identify and resolve emerging challenges. Despite the non-significant interaction and group effects, including sexual well-being support in post-burns rehabilitation programmes will facilitate access to and utilisation of the service among burn survivors who may need it.
Trial registration: Prospectively registered on 14th August 2020.
期刊介绍:
BMC Nursing is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers articles on all aspects of nursing research, training, education and practice.