A national audit of standards of care for women with vulval conditions and survey of attitudes to nurse practitioners in vulval services in the UK

Abstract

This national audit assessed whether UK specialist vulval clinics adhere to the British Society of Vulval Diseases (BSSVD) document ‘Standards of care for women with vulval conditions’ published in 2013 and benchmarked clinician attitudes towards nurse practitioners in vulval services. Audit standards were based on the BSSVD guidance. All BSSVD and British Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology or BSCCP members were surveyed via two electronic questionnaires. Results demonstrate that the majority of specialist vulval clinics in the UK are non-compliant with the standards set out for specialist vulval services. The majority of clinicians would support the introduction of clinical nurse specialists to vulval services, but there is need for development of a national training programme. In conclusion, significant improvements are required in provision of patient information, guidelines, access to multidisciplinary services, multidisciplinary team or MDT processes and data recording in UK specialist vulval services.

Keywords::

• Clinical nurse specialist
• standards
• vulval services

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all of the clinical staff who took the time to complete both the audit and survey.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.