Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT): A Key Practice for Nurse Practitioners in STD Management

Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT): A Key Practice for Nurse Practitioners in STD Management

Hello,

Great work with your post. I agree with you; expedited partner therapy (EPT) is an appropriate routine management and approach to partner treatment in sex partners when one of the partners is diagnosed with STIs such as HIV, syphilis, chlamydia, or gonorrhea. EPT is important in such a case for a number of reasons. Firstly, as you have noted, treating a person who is not your patient creates various legal and ethical challenges due to the associated liabilities and risk of exposing the privacy of one partner (McCool-Myers et al., 2021). Using EPT overcomes these challenges as the tested patient takes the medications to their partner.

Secondly, since a majority of the partners are probably to remain sexually active even after a diagnosis and treatment, EPT prevents one partner from infecting the other and may thus help prevent reinfections. Thirdly, many people have an issue with taking STI management medications due to stigmatization or other fears. EPT can ensure that both partners use the medication, whereby only one partner visits the clinic and gets the medications, ultimately increasing the rate of treatment. Similarly, the increase in the rate of use of STI medications and treatment and the reduction in risk of reinfection may significantly contribute to the reduction of transmission rates among partners and within the local community (McCool-Myers et al., 2021). Therefore, the use of EPT as routine management and approach to treatment involving sex partners when one of the partners is diagnosed with STIs such as HIV, syphilis, chlamydia, or gonorrhea can reduce the risk of reinfections, rates of transmission of STIs, and better access to STIs medication with overall impacts on the sustainability of the public health.

References

McCool-Myers, M., Goedken, P., Henn, M. C., Sheth, A. N., & Kottke, M. J. (2021). Who is practicing expedited partner therapy and why? Insights from providers working in specialties with high volumes of sexually transmitted infections. Sexually Transmitted Diseases, 48(7), 474–480. https://doi.org/10.1097/

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

PLEASE RESPOND TO THIS POST

I want to add the following, as nurse practitioners, we ought to familiarize ourselves with the EPT notion as we discuss STDs:
What is EPT?
Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT) is the clinical practice of treating the sex partners of patients diagnosed with HIV, Syphilis, Chlamydia, or Gonorrhea, for example, by providing prescriptions or medications to the patient to take to his/her partner without the health care provider first examining the partner.

Expedited Partner Therapy (EPT)- A Key Practice for Nurse Practitioners in STD Management

The routine management and approach to partner treatment have included clinical w in a health care setting, with partner notification accomplished by the index patient, by the provider or an agent of the provider, or a combination of these methods.

As we know, treating a person who is not our patient is a forbidden task in our profession because it carries a lot of liabilities, but this policy removes this burden on our shoulders when dealing with STDs; please familiarize yourself with your state stands regarding this law.