Adapting, developing and testing of an eLearning resource for healthcare professionals to enhance provision of sexual support in cancer care

Background: Many patients with cancer and their partners report significant challenges with their sexuality. Healthcare professionals (HPs) should initiate sexual support for patients and their partners (Carter et al. 2017; NICE 2019). Patients wish to discuss sexual concerns with HPs (Den Ouden et al. 2019), however, these conversations are not routine practice (Reese et al. 2017). HPs identify a lack of knowledge as a key barrier to providing sexual support (O’Connor et al. 2019). A theory-driven and positively evaluated eLearning resource to support HPs working within prostate cancer setting has been developed (Maximising Sexual Wellbeing: Prostate Cancer (MSW:PC)) (McCaughan et al. 2020). This resource requires adaption for use across cancer care.
Aim: To adapt, develop and test an eLearning resource for HPs to maximise sexual support across cancer care, using the Person Based Approach.
Methodology: The adapting and development of this eLearning resource combined evidence from the literature, an expert group and the research team. The expert group comprised of patients with cancer, partners and HPs working in cancer care. Content was adapted from the MSW:PC and new content developed relevant for a mixed cancer population, using an iterative approach. An iterative approach was also adopted with n=19 ‘think aloud’ interviews for prototype usability testing, resulting in continuous movement between data collection, analysis and modification of the intervention.
Results: Involving key stakeholders and end-users throughout all phases of this process, optimised the intervention development. Similar sexual challenges were identified across cancer populations; however, additional information was necessary for some tumour groups such as breast, colorectal, gynaecological and head and neck. During the testing phase, think-aloud interviews identified navigational difficulties which were resolved. Minor modifications were made to the content.
Discussion and Conclusion: The systematic and iterative person-based approach, yielded important insights to enhance the content and usability of the intervention.