Sexual health

Transcript

Welcome to the sexual health page.

Here you will find a wide range of learning and assessment on the topic of sexual health. Good sexual health is recognised as an important factor in health and well-being. Increasing rates of sexually transmitted infections means that pharmacy is well placed to offer sexual health services and provide advice, support and treatment to people who may have concerns about their sexual health.

Within the resources you will find an overview of the current commissioning routes of sexual health services, as well as knowledge and behaviour based learning that enables you to support your Declaration of Competence in providing sexual health services.

There is information on sexually transmitted infections, with signposting to CPPE resources and external resources too. We also highlight UK guidelines and framework documents to support your practice via the British Association of Sexual Health and HIV website and the Department of Health information.

Take a look at theLearningpharmacy.com floor on sexual health, where there is learning for the whole pharmacy team to help build the confidence of everyone who speaks with people about their sexual health.

This is one of three different areas related to sexual health – You may wish to explore the other topics on contraception and emergency contraception as part of your ongoing professional development.

Pharmacy professionals may be drawn into or have to initiate various difficult discussions. This e-learning programme builds on CPPE’s basic communication and consultation skills learning programmes to help staff undertake more difficult discussions with patients and others.

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of all aspects of this learning programme you should be able to:

• idenitfy examples of discussions that are difficult for both you and your patients or service users
• reflect on how your own values, attitudes and beliefs affect how you deal with dicussions you find difficult
• describe how developing your resilience can support you in dealing with difficult discussions
• identify barriers to effective communication in difficult discussions and find strategies to make this easier
• undertake difficult discussions with patients and service users using relevant consultation skills models.

The aim of this programme is to equip pharmacy professionals and their teams with the knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver high-quality, person-centred sexual health services.

CPPE also has learning programmes on contraception and emergency contraception:

- Contraception
- Emergency contraception

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of all aspects of this learning programme you should be able to:

• describe the role and responsibilities of pharmacies in providing sexual health services in the context of national and local policies and applying current relevant guidance
• access local and national sexual health data to understand service gaps
• map and make links with your local sexual health network and referral pathways to ensure seamless client care
• train your staff to respond confidently and appropriately to the sexual health needs of clients
• create a welcoming, non-judgemental, supportive environment for sexual health consultations
• carry out client-centred consultations to meet client needs, balancing the need for confidentiality with safeguarding considerations and identifying warning signs of child sexual exploitation and relationship abuse
• take an accurate and purposeful sexual history and identify risks and symptoms/situations requiring referral
• list risk factors, signs, symptoms, consequences and treatment options for relevant STIs, how to test for them and what to do with the results, including your role in partner notification (PN)
• promote advice on minimising risk and safer sex at every opportunity
• develop a standard operating procedure for your sexual health service.

This programme will help pharmacy teams to identify who may need advice and support, how they can give that support and what is the best course of action. It includes information on emergency hormonal contraception, the copper-bearing and the intrauterine device.

It has been developed to support pharmacists to set up an emergency contraception (EC) service as an enhanced community service.

CPPE also has learning programmes on sexual health and contraception:

- Sexual health
- Contraception

Please note: The FSRH Guideline Emergency Contraception have agreed a recommendation that there is no need to avoid breastfeeding after taking a single dose of UPA-EC. See FSRH Statement: Ulipristal Acetate and Breastfeeding (Jan 2025) | FSRH for further detail. We will amend this programme to reflect this in our next scheduled update.

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of all aspects of this learning progamme you should be able to:

• describe how you will provide emergency contraception in your pharmacy practice
• apply current clinical guidance to determine when emergency contraception is needed
• discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of emergency contraception available
• take appropriate action if you have concerns about safeguarding issues, including consent to have sex
• conduct high-quality emergency contraception consultations, structured around the Calgary–Cambridge model
• discuss information about the copper IUD (Cu-IUD), contraception, condoms and chlamydia in your emergency contraception consultations.

This e-assessment is linked with the practice standards for consultation skills and the CPPE consultation skills learning programmes.

Why should I do this assessment?

Access and successful completion of this assessment will contribute to your own personal development plan, be recorded in your My CPPE record and will enable you to complete a CPD entry on the learning. It may also provide evidence for achieving competencies in the different competency frameworks that apply across your career. If you are working towards completing a Declaration of Competence for a pharmacy service, successful completion of this assessment will provide evidence of your learning.

This e-assessment tests your knowledge and understanding in relation to the Sexual health in pharmacies programme.

Why should I do this assessment?

This e-assessment completes the learning you began with the CPPE Sexual health in pharmacies programme. Access and successful completion will contribute to your own personal development plan, be recorded in your My CPPE record and will enable you to complete a CPD entry on the learning. It may also provide evidence for achieving competencies in the different competency frameworks that apply across your career. If you are working towards completing a Declaration of Competence for a pharmacy service, successful completion of this assessment will provide evidence of your learning.

This e-assessment is linked with the CPPE Emergency contraception e-learning programme and assesses you on the learning outcomes within that programme.

Why should I do this assessment?

This e-assessment completes the learning you began with the CPPE Emergency contraception e-learning programme. Access and successful completion will contribute to your own personal development plan, be recorded in your My CPPE record and will enable you to complete a CPD entry on the learning. It may also provide evidence for achieving competencies in the different competency frameworks that apply across your career. If you are working towards completing a Declaration of Competence for a pharmacy service, successful completion of this assessment will provide evidence of your learning.

British Association for Sexual Health and HIV homepage

This document has been developed for commissioners and providers of sexual health services in order to support the commissioning of sexual health services.

All NICE products on sexual health. Includes any guidance, advice, NICE Pathways and quality standards.

This e-learning programme aims to equip you with the up-to-date skills and knowledge that you need to confidently support and advise patients who use or might use contraception. It contributes to the completion of your Declaration of Competence to provide oral contraception and emergency contraception services. 

CPPE also has learning programmes on emergency contraception and sexual health:

- Emegency contraception
- Sexual health

Please note: The FSRH Guideline Emergency Contraception have agreed a recommendation that there is no need to avoid breastfeeding after taking a single dose of UPA-EC. See FSRH Statement: Ulipristal Acetate and Breastfeeding (Jan 2025) | FSRH for further detail. We will amend this programme to reflect this in our next scheduled update.

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of all aspects of this learning programme you should be able to:

• describe how to ensure a patient-centred approach when providing contraception advice and services
• describe the different types and methods of contraception and their use, risks and benefits
• identify and use key current reference sources to maintain up-to-date knowledge about different forms of contraception
• confidently deal with common issues encountered when providing effective contraception advice and services
• use evidence-based judgement to decide when to refer a patient and identify patients who require other contraception services.

Scenario: Management : covers the management of men with erectile dysfunction.

Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Sexual health: NHS choice webpage.