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

Abstract

Dealing with sexual problems due to disease or disability is part of medical rehabilitation, but both patients and professionals experience barriers to discuss sexual issues. A brief discipline-specific sexological training for rehabilitation professionals was therefore developed and evaluated in two rehabilitation centers in The Netherlands. Among the 283 participants were physicians (42), physical therapists (38), occupational therapists (40), psychologists and social workers (26), nurses (101), and other disciplines (36). Measurements before training, after training, and at 3-4 months follow-up showed increase of self-rated sexological competence and of scores on the Knowledge, Comfort, Approach, and Attitudes towards Sexuality Scale (KCAASS) during the training that were maintained at follow-up. Disciplines differed in sexual competence before training and in increase of sexual competence after training. Implementation of the training in other rehabilitation centers is recommended.

A Multiple Timepoint Pre-post Evaluation of a ‘Sexual Respect’ DVD to Improve Competence in Discussing Sex with Patients with Disability

“…This is consistent with previous research highlighting the benefit of sexuality education for professionals more generally [21,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51].…”

“…Furthermore, it has been argued that education should be provided early in the clinicians' career, before negative attitudes and stereotypes have been developed [42][43][44]. Evaluation studies provide evidence of the effectiveness of education in enhancing knowledge, skills, and comfort in addressing patients' sexual concerns [21,[45][46][47][48][49][50][51]. However, there are limited evaluations aimed at improving clinicians' ability to discuss sexuality when working with people with disabilities [25].…”

What keeps nurses from the sexual counseling of patients with heart failure?

“…Taking these educational courses can be advantageous, because the improved knowledge and attitudes of nurses will help them feel at ease when discussing sexual health in practice. 19 an article which provides 10 strategies to help nurses who work with oncology patients address and validate patients' sexual experiences and concerns about quality of life. 21 Such strategies could easily be translated to cardiology practice.…”

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

“…Attitudes and/or beliefs about the importance of sexual health for persons with different types of physical, psychological, or sexual dysfunctions may affect how health care professionals interact with patients (Evans, 2013;Gianotten, Bender, Post, & Höing, 2006;Haboubi & Lincoln, 2003;Shakespeare, Iezzoni, & Groce, 2009). Patients want health professionals to take the initiative, and to be competent and confident in discussing sexual health concerns (Post et al, 2008;Taylor & Davis, 2006;Wittenberg & Gerber, 2009). Therefore, education regarding sexuality and sexual health is essential in order to give health care professions sufficient knowledge and security in how to address sexual health.…”