A Pilot Survey of Arizona Pharmacist’s and Nurse Practitioner’s Knowledge, Comfortability, and Confidence on Guideline-Based Post-Sexual Assault Care

Abstract

Specific Aims: Establish baseline data on Arizona-registered pharmacist and nurse practitioner’s competency, confidence, and comfortability through a short survey based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 2021 guidelines on Sexual Assault and Abuse and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).Methods: Prospective, cross-sectional, descriptive study utilizing survey data. Respondents were recruited through Arizona Pharmacy Association (AzPA) and University of Arizona nurse practitioner email listservs. Participants were given a score based on the number of correct responses for the knowledge portion of the survey. A pooled mean was calculated for 1) all responses 2) Location of reported practice site 3) Gender identity and 4) Level of terminal education. The difference in means of number-correct scores was compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA), with P-value of <0.05. Results: Total mean competency score was 1.25 ±1.1 out of 4 (31.25%). There were no statistical differences between the scores of the knowledge questions and confidence on providing post-sexual assault care based on level of education, gender identity, or location of primary practice site. Differences in comfortability scores were statistically significant (p=0.001) based on level of education. No nurse practitioner responses met inclusion criteria and were not used for statistical analysis. Conclusions: Arizona pharmacists have low competency with CDC 2021 Guidelines on Sexual Assault and Abuse and STIs. Confidence was inversely proportional to education level. Majority of respondents expressed interest in continuing education on sexual assault care.