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Health Care Students’ Attitudes Towards Working with Sexual Health in Their Professional Roles: Survey of Students at Nursing, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Programmes

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore differences and similarities in health care students’ attitudes towards working with and communicating with patients about sexual health issues in their future professions. The aim was also to explore whether the students’ gender, age and future professions were influencing factors and whether there was a change in attitude depending on educational levels, gender, age and future professions. The study also aimed to explore the potential development of those differences and similarities in attitudes between health care students having achieved different levels of education and training in their future professions. A cross-sectional quantitative study was performed with an online survey distributed to nursing, occupational therapy and physiotherapy students. The students believed that they needed increased sexual health education and increased communication skills about sexual health. Gender and future profession are factors that significantly affect the attitudes of the students towards working with sexual health. Nursing and occupational therapy students have a more positive attitude towards addressing sexual health in their future professions than do physiotherapy students. Further research is needed in this field to improve competence in sexual health for all student groups, particularly physiotherapy students. Further research is also needed to explore the significance of gender regarding education in sexual health and attitudes towards working with sexual health.

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Acknowledgments

Futurum, Academy for Health and Care, Jönköping County Council, Jönköping, and Per Westlings Foundation, Lund, funded the research project.

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Correspondence to Kristina Areskoug-Josefsson.

Appendix: Students’ Attitudes Towards Addressing Sexual Health (SA-SH)

Appendix: Students’ Attitudes Towards Addressing Sexual Health (SA-SH)

Items that are significantly different between the student and gender groups are marked with the p values of the significance.

PT = physiotherapy students, OT = occupational therapy students, N = nursing students

  1. 1.

    I feel comfortable about informing future patients about sexual health. (PT–OT: p = 0.03, PT–N: p = 0.02, OT–N: N.S.)

  2. 2.

    I feel comfortable about initiating a conversation regarding sexual health with future patients. (PT–OT: N.S., PT–N: p = 0.009, OT–N: N.S.)

  3. 3.

    I feel comfortable about discussing sexual health with future patients. (N.S.)

  4. 4.

    I feel comfortable about discussing sexual health issues with future patients regardless of their sex. (PT–OT: p = 0.01, PT–N: p = 0.04, OT–N: N.S.)

  5. 5.

    I feel comfortable about discussing sexual health issues with future patients regardless of their age. (PT–OT: p = 0.01, PT–N: N.S, OT–N: N.S.)

  6. 6.

    I feel comfortable about discussing sexual health issues with future patients regardless of their cultural background. (N.S.)

  7. 7.

    I feel comfortable about discussing sexual health issues with future patients regardless of their sexual orientation. (N.S.)

  8. 8.

    I feel comfortable about discussing specific sexual activities with future patients. PT–OT: p = 0.01, PT–N: p = 0.02, OT–N: N.S.)

  9. 9.

    I am unprepared to talk about sexual health with future patients. PT–OT: N.S, PT–N: p = 0.02, OT–N: N.S.)

  10. 10.

    I believe that I might feel embarrassed if future patients talk about sexual issues. PT–OT: N.S, PT–N: p = 0.02, OT–N: N.S.)

  11. 11.

    I believe that future patients might feel embarrassed if I bring up sexual issues. PT–OT: N.S, PT–N: p = 0.001, OT–N: N.S.)

  12. 12.

    I am afraid that future patients might feel uneasy if I talk about sexual issues. (N.S.)

  13. 13.

    I am afraid that conversations regarding sexual health might create a distance between me and the patients. (PT–OT: N.S, PT–N: p = 0.03, OT–N: p = N.S.)

  14. 14.

    I believe that I will have too much to do in my future profession to have time to handle sexual issues. (N.S.)

  15. 15.

    I will take time to deal with patients’ sexual issues in my future profession. (PT–OT: p < 0.001, PT–N: p < 0.001, OT–N: N.S.)

  16. 16.

    I am afraid that my future colleagues would feel uneasy if I brought up sexual issues with patients. (N.S.)

  17. 17.

    I am afraid that my future colleagues would feel uncomfortable in dealing with questions regarding patients’ sexual health. (N.S.)

  18. 18.

    I believe that my future colleagues will be reluctant to talk about sexual issues. (N.S.)

  19. 19.

    In my education I have been educated about sexual health. (PT–OT: N.S, PT–N: p < 0.001, OT–N: p = 0.004) (MEN–women: p = 0.04)

  20. 20.

    I think that I as a student need to get basic knowledge about sexual health in my education. (PT–OT: p = 0.02, PT–N: p < 0.001, OT–N: N.S) (men–women: p = 0.03)

  21. 21.

    I have sufficient competence to talk about sexual health with my future patients. (PT–OT: N.S, PT–N: p = 0.01, OT–N: p = N.S.)

  22. 22.

    I think that I need to be trained in my education to talk about sexual health. (PT–OT: p = 0.001; PT–N: p < 0.001; OT–N: N.S) (men–women: p = 0.01)

  23. 23.

    All items are answered on a Likert scale with 5 options: disagree, partly disagree, partly agree, agree, strongly agree.

Factor 1 = item 1–8, Factor 2 = item 14, 17, 18, Factor 3 = item 9, 11, 13, 19

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Areskoug-Josefsson, K., Larsson, A., Gard, G. et al. Health Care Students’ Attitudes Towards Working with Sexual Health in Their Professional Roles: Survey of Students at Nursing, Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy Programmes. Sex Disabil 34, 289–302 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11195-016-9442-z

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