Professional Involvement in Sexuality Counseling for Patients With Spinal Cord Injuries

Abstract

A national survey was conducted to determine how occupational therapists and rehabilitation nurses conduct sexuality counseling in practice settings with spinal cord-injured patients. A review of the literature and results from the survey demonstrated a high priority concern for sexuality counseling in the total rehabilitation of the spinal cord-injured patient; however, many of the professionals surveyed did not conduct sexuality counseling as part of their job. This study provides data comparing the sexuality counseling approach taken by these two disciplines and identifies ways to eliminate the incongruities between recommendations made in the literature and actual clinical practice.

Sexological Competence of Different Rehabilitation Disciplines and Effects of a Discipline-specific Sexological Training

“…This item is not appropriate for most other diagnostic groups and an appropriate answer requires knowledge about the consequences of spinal cord injury that not every rehabilitation professional will have. The Dutch KCAASS thus consisted of 44 items with summary scores for Knowledge (range 14-56), Comfort (range 21-84), Approach (range [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], and Attitude (range 4-16). Cronbach's alpha was good for the Knowledge (0.85), Comfort (0.95), and Approach (0.82) scales but insufficient for the Attitude scale (0.57).…”

“…Novak and Marlys [17] compared American spinal cord injury nurses (N = 76) and occupational therapists (N = 74) and found that nurses received more training and were more often involved in sexual counseling than occupational therapists. Haboubi and Lincoln [14] performed a large survey (N = 813) including British nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists.…”

Improving Sexual Satisfaction in Persons with Spinal Cord Injuries: Collective Wisdom

“…Unfortunately, talking about sexuality can be challenging for both clinicians and clients. [4][5][6] In a survey of 458 individuals with SCI, only 8% had initiated a discussion of sexual concerns 7 although most wanted more education and counseling. Consumers' comfort level for discussing sexuality was greatest with another person with SCI followed by doctors, nurses, psychologists, rehabilitation counselors, and social workers.…”

La sexualidad de las personas con lesión medular: aspectos psicológicos y sociales. Una revisión actualizada

“…Es más, algún estudio pone de manifiesto que algunos de estos profesionales no consideran el asesoramiento a las PcLM como parte fundamental o importante en su trabajo (Novak y Mitchell, 1988).…”

“…Por último, aparecen estudios que investigan la problemática de estas personas informada por el personal sanitario y rehabilitador (Booth et al, 2003;Cole y Stevens, 1975;Conine et al, 1979;Lemon, 1993;McBride y Rines, 2000;Novak y Mitchell, 1988;Rohme, 1979).…”