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Sexual Health as a Part of Physiotherapy: The Voices of Physiotherapy Students

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Abstract

The aim of the project was to explore and describe the views of physiotherapy students concerning sexual health as a part of physiotherapy education, and to enable them in their future profession as physiotherapists to be able to discuss sexual health matters with patients in an informed, sensitive and relaxed way. A qualitative interview study with data collection through focus group interviews was performed and analyzed with thematic content analysis. There was a strong consensus among the physiotherapy students in believing that sexual health should be acknowledged by physiotherapists. The theme that emerged from the data was: Sexual health—a professional challenge. The interviews resulted in the following categories: professional challenge, personal life experiences, communication, perceptive patient understanding, environmental factors and need for competence development. Students are positive towards working with sexual health. They believe that sexual health is an important aspect of quality of life, and therefore should be a part of physiotherapy education. Sexual health needs to be more addressed in the physiotherapy education. Students lack knowledge of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, sexual health and communication about sensitive issues. Perceived barriers towards working with sexual health could probably be lessened with increased education, but further research is needed. Personal development, knowledge, experience and environmental factors facilitate communication about sexual health.

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Acknowledgments

Futurum – Academy for Healthcare, County of Jönköping, Jönköping, Sweden funded the research project.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Physiotherapy, Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Kristina Areskoug-Josefsson & Gunvor Gard

  2. Futurum – Academy of Health Care, Jönköping County Council, Jönköping, Sweden

    Kristina Areskoug-Josefsson

  3. Samrehab, Värnamo Hospital, Värnamo, Sweden

    Kristina Areskoug-Josefsson

  4. Health and Rehab, Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden

    Gunvor Gard

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  1. Kristina Areskoug-Josefsson
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Correspondence to Kristina Areskoug-Josefsson.

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Areskoug-Josefsson, K., Gard, G. Sexual Health as a Part of Physiotherapy: The Voices of Physiotherapy Students. Sex Disabil 33, 513–532 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-015-9403-y

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