Nurses' Sexual Health Care Practices and Determination of Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Sexual Care
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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10048650Keywords:
Sexual health care,, Sexual attitude and beliefs,, Nursing.Abstract
Objective: The study aimed to determine the sexual health care practices of nurses and their attitudes and beliefs about sexual care.
Methods: One hundred sixty nurses working in a Training and Research Hospital participated in the study. Data were collected by using the Personal Information Form and the Sexual Attitudes and Beliefs Scale (SABS).
Results: In the study, although 63.1% of the nurses were aware that it was their nursing responsibility to talk about the sexual health problems of the patients, only about a quarter of nurses evaluated the sexual health of patients (25.0%) and carried out care related to sexual health problems (25.6%). A significant difference was found between these applications and SABS total score averages (p<0.05). The SABS total score average of the nurses was 45.26 ± 6.98. This shows that nurses perceive more barriers in sexual health care practices. The results of the study showed that 70.6% of the nurses directed the patient to the doctor for questions about sexuality; 80.6% of the nurses will not understand how illness and treatment will affect their sexuality; 74.4% of them are uncomfortable talking about sexual matters; It showed that 81.9% did not take the time to discuss their sexual problems with patients and 76.3% of them did not trust the ability to notice sexual issues.
Conclusion: As a result of the study nurses' sexual health care practices towards patients are limited. The nurses' sexual health care practices are not sufficient. Nurses have a high level of negative attitudes and beliefs about sexual care. Several critical barriers to providing sexual health care have been identified. It is essential to consider sexuality more clearly in the primary education curriculum, to continue in-service training on sexual health issues, to eliminate obstacles, and to routinely plan and sustain sexual health care practices of patients in practice.
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