Attitudes and Beliefs of Nurses Regarding Discussion of Sexual Concerns of Patients During Hospitalization

摘要

The aim of the study was to describe nurses’ attitudes and beliefs towards discussing sexuality with patients. Sexual health is a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in relation to sexuality. Sexual dysfunction occurs quite commonly in the community. A descriptive and comparative design was adopted to explore Turkish nurses’ attitudes and beliefs towards discussing sexuality with patients. The rate of participation of nurses was found to be 89 %. Data collection form consisted of two parts: demographic information and the inventory of Sexuality Attitudes and Beliefs Survey (SABS). Mean scores of the nurses SABS was 41.58 ± 7.67. Status of offering counselling on sexuality was found to be significantly related to the SABS scores (p < 0.05). The majority of nurses (72.2 %) disagreed with spending more time to discuss sexual concerns with their patients, 68.9 % viewed sexuality as ‘too private an issue to discuss’. In this study, it was established that nurses were aware of the concerns of the patients about sexuality, but their practical attempts to relieve those concerns were not adequate. In view of these results, it is recommended that sexuality should be discussed more openly in basic education curriculum and that inservice training on the issue of sexuality and health should be addressed.