The level of comfort among nursing students during sexual counseling to patients who have chronic medical conditions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the level of comfort among nursing students during sexual counseling to patients who have chronic medical conditions. The sample of this descriptive study consisted of 161 students who study at the third and fourth years at a health college. More than half of the students reported being comfortable or a slightly comfortable during providing sexual counseling to patients who have chronic conditions. Students who are not comfortable with answering questions related to sexuality (p = 0.000), find initiating a conversation on future sexual problems with the patient is inappropriate unless the patient brings it up (p = 0.007), and nurses should not talk about sexual issues in a routine way with patients (p = 0.026) who do not feel comfortable during sexual counseling. In order to provide nursing students feeling comfortable, the issue of sexual counseling to patients who have chronic conditions should take place during the nursing education.