Assessing Nursing Students’ Sex Knowledge and Sexual Attitudes: Implications for Primary Health Care
- Author:
Ag Hoi Nga
1
Author Information
1. Research Unit on Love, Marriage and Family, School of Humanities and Languages, Caritas Institute of Higher Education, Chui Ling Road, NT, Hong Kong
- Collective Name:Kam Weng Boey
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Nursing students;
primary care setting;
sexual health;
sexual attitudes;
sexual knowledge.
- From:International Journal of Public Health Research
2020;10(1):1148-1157
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Health professionals, especially nurses, in primary care setting are considered
most appropriate for providing sexual health care. To provide quality sexual
health care, nurses should have adequate sex knowledge and hold positive
attitude towards sexuality. However, nurses’ perceived inadequate knowledge
and negative attitudes towards sexuality were reported to be two major barriers
to sexual health care, yet little is known about these barriers among nursing
students in Hong Kong. This study was conducted to examine sex knowledge
and attitudes towards sexuality among nursing students in Hong Kong.
Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on the first year nursing students (N=
258) who were recruited to participate via convenience sampling. The General
Sexual Knowledge Scale (GSKS) and Attitude towards Sexuality Scale
(ATSS) were used to collect data for this study. The data were analysed by
descriptive statistics and independent t-test.
Results Sex knowledge was 10.4 ± 3.5 and sexual attitude was 32.9 ± 4.6 indicating
nursing students’ sex knowledge was poor and their sexual attitudes were
neutral. Sex knowledge was positively related to the sexual attitudes (r = 0.47,
p < .01). The attitudes were more liberal in students aged 20 years old or above
than students aged 19 or below. Sexual attitudes were also more liberal among
students who did not reported religious affiliation than students who did.
Conclusions Knowledge and positive attitudes regarding human sexuality needed to be
promoted among nursing students. Findings from this study provided useful
information in preparing nursing students to render high quality sexual health
care in primary care settings.
- Full text:21.2020my0232.pdf
