Exploring Sexual and Reproductive Health Communication Issues in Adolescent Oncology Patients

Running head: HEALTH
Health
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Young patient with cancer experiences challenges in addressing sexual and reproductive
health issues (Benedict, Shuk & Ford, 2016). As this may affect their self-esteem, intimate
relationship and sexual relationship, there is a need to identify how far oncology clinicians
engage in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) communication for adolescent patient with
cancer. In response to the research problem, the clinical question for the task includes ‘What are
the sexual health communication issues experienced by adolescent and young adult oncology
patient?’. The essay will discuss about search strategy and critical appraisal of one article found
relevant to address the research question.
Search strategy is a step to accurately find relevant research evidence to address research
question (McGowan et al., 2016). To find relevant article for the search articles, the search for
article was done in CINAHL and the key word used for the search term included ‘oncology
patients’, ‘sexual and reproductive health’, ‘sexual health communication with young oncology
patient’ and ‘communication issues with oncology patients. The eligibility criteria for article
selection was that research must be published within the last 5 years, it must have young
oncology patients as the main population group and study must explore sexual and
communication health issues. Based on these criteria, the article by Frederick et al. (2019) was
found relevant to address the clinical question. The following paragraph will give details about
the summary and critical appraisal of the article.
The main aim of the study was to explore young oncology patient’s perception and
experience about SRH communication. The study used semi-structured qualitative interview
method to explore about the research topic and exploratory research design was utilized in the
study. The participants for the study included adolescents and youth aged 15 to 25 years with
cancer. All the participants for the study were recruited from a single academic cancer during

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outpatient visits between February to August 2017. Hence, oncology centre was the main setting
for conducting the research. Data collection was done by means of semi-structured interview
method using either in-person or telephone interviews. Participants were given the choice to
choose either option. The study was done with 8 structured questions to explore participants
view about SRH communication with oncology providers. Apart from this, a brief demographic
questionnaire was also used to collect demographic data. The interview data was audio recorded
and transcribed verbatim. The data was analyzed using multistage coding process and using
inductive approach to arrange data into many themes. The theme emerging from the result
finding included ‘need for oncology clinicians to discuss SRH’ and ‘gaps in current SRH
communication practices’. The result finding gave the idea that young oncology patient regarded
the need for improved SRH communication and their response revealed gaps in current
communication. The overall conclusion from the study was that as multiple barriers occur during
SRH communication with young oncology patient, the study indicated improving future efforts
to improve oncology clinicians training in SRH.
The critical appraisal of the paper using the CASP tool gives idea about the validity
and reliability of the research paper (Buccheri & Sharifi, 2017). The research paper had a clear
statement of aims of the research as the rationale for research was justified by evidence regarding
sexual health issues for young oncology patients and need for greater patient-clinician SRH
communication. According to Ravindra and Kestle (2018), a clear research question helps to
develop interest in research paper and understand the significance of the paper for practice
improvement. The study used qualitative semi-structured interview method to get answer to the
research question. Use of qualitative approach is appropriate according to the research question
as the goal of the study was to explore perceptions related to SRH communication in target