Planned Parenthood

BackgroundVaginitis is a major cause of healthcare visits in the US, costing over $1.2 billion annually. Point-of-care (POC) nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) could improve accuracy of diagnosis and treatment during initial visit for vaginitis compared to send-out NAATs.MethodsA secondary analysis of data was collected from test operators at POC testing sites where the Xpert Xpress Multiplex Vaginal Panel test (“MVP test”) was performed. Users completed a survey assessing their experience with the instrument system and the PCR-based MVP test. ResultsThe MVP test demonstrated consistent performance, measured by positive and negative percent agreement, across all user categories, including both trained and untrained staff. Performance was evaluated based on job function (clinicians, non-clinicians, support staff) and educational level (bachelor’s degree or higher, associate’s degree or some college, high school diploma/general educational development (GED) with technical certification), with no significant differences in performance (P >0.082 and P >0.050, respectively).User feedback from 19 operators showed that 15/19 (79%) of users found the GeneXpert Xpress Instrument System easy to set up, and 18/19 (96%) found the test instructions easy to follow. Users described the system as user-friendly with clear instructions and helpful videos. Overall, 19/19 (100%) agreed that the MVP test was easy to perform.ConclusionsAvailability of accurate POC diagnostics will only be useful if the test can be performed by any potential user. Our study results suggest that the MVP test was acceptable to users and that results were accurate regardless of user qualifications. Thus, this test has the potential to improve the immediate clinical outcome by supporting accurate, same day treatment for causes of vaginitis.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-025-11304-8.

To explore the relationship between abortion care model and living in a state with an abortion ban with the psychosocial burden of care-seeking. From May 2021 to March2023, we surveyed patients obtaining medication abortion ≤70 days gestation, ages ≥15 years at four abortion clinic organizations in six U.S. states. We used negative binomial regression to assess three psychosocial burden dimensions: structural challenges (5 items, α=0.80), lack of autonomy (3 items, α=0.73), and others' reactions to the pregnancy (2 items, α=0.88) by abortion care model (no-test telehealth + mail, no-test + pickup, and in-person + ultrasound) and living in an abortion-ban state. 400 people completed psychosocial burden items. In adjusted analyses, no-test telehealth + mail was associated with less overall psychosocial burden (incident rate ratio [IRR] 0.82, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.70, 0.95), including fewer structural challenges (IRR 0.78, 95% CI 0.67, 0.91) and less lack of autonomy (IRR 0.65, 95% CI 0.47, 0.90) than in-person + ultrasound, mostly due to less difficulty traveling (24% vs 32%, p < 0.05) and feeling less forced to wait after deciding (11% vs 22%, p < 0.05). People in abortion-ban states reported more psychosocial burden (IRR 1.62, 95% CI 1.26, 2.08) including more structural challenges (IRR 1.95 0.36, 95% CI 1.53, 2.29) than people in states without bans. No-test telehealth abortion care may reduce the psychosocial burden of care-seeking, especially the difficulties of travel and feeling forced to wait for care. Findings add to the body of evidence in support of expanding telehealth abortion care by reducing travel burden and potentially increasing autonomous decision-making when seeking abortion care.

Integration of simulations based on the Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™ for Simulation Design provides nursing students with clinical experiences that enhance the development of clinical reasoning, decision-making, and competency. Yet, schools of nursing continue to face challenges while integrating simulation into the curriculum, such as lack of course content alignment, scheduling issues, and training needs of facilitators and debriefers. This article describes how a nursing program integrated weekly simulations into the curriculum, including the scheduling and resources required, facilitator and debriefer training, and evaluation used to ensure high-quality clinical learning experiences.

The authors compared the performance of a novel self-collect device with clinician-collected samples for detection of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV). Eighty-two (82) participants were recruited from 5 clinical sites in the United States. Each participant performed self-collect sampling using the self-collect device followed by a standard of care clinician-collected sample. Both samples were evaluated for hrHPV using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based HPV assays. A subset of HPV-positive samples underwent dual staining (p16/Ki-67), and concordance was evaluated. Biopsy results collected per standard of care were recorded. On the Roche cobas assay, the preliminary positive percent agreement (PPA) and negative percent agreement (NPA) was 91%. Agreement for hrHPV using the BD OnClarity in PreservCyt was 100% PPA (n = 10), and 100% PPA, 93% NPA in SurePath. Dual-stain concordance was 93% (n = 16) overall, and 100% for HPV other genotypes. Seventy-one participants (n = 71; 89%) indicated they would feel confident using the self-collect device for screening if they knew they could get equal results, and 86% (n = 69) indicated that they would be more likely to get screened with this option. The self-collect device shows high (>92%) positive and negative agreement for detection of HPV when compared with reference clinician-collected samples, with very high acceptability and preference. Furthermore, the self-samples collected with the self-collect device showed highly concordant results by dual stain, which is a novel and emerging application for a self-collected sampling device, thus enabling potential triage from 1 sample.