The Effect of Sexual Health Training Given to Nursing Students on Knowledge and Attitude

Overview

Nurses play an important role in providing sexual health care to individuals. In this study, sexual health education will be implemented in an innovative way by supporting the use of models in the process of sexual counseling of nursing students to patients. The PLISSIT model, which is most frequently used when providing sexual counseling services to patients, will be taught to nursing students and its effectiveness will be determined. In the literature, only one study was found regarding the use of the PLISSIT model in sexual health assessment, conducted with students. The research was planned as pretest-posttest comparative, randomised, with an experimental and a control group, and with repeated measurements, in order to determine the effect of sexual health education given to nursing students with the PLISSIT model on sexual health care knowledge, sexual health care attitudes and myths about sexual health. This research will be carried out between December 2023 and March 2024 with the participation of fourth-year students studying at Marmara University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing. Students who meet the inclusion criteria will be randomly assigned to experimental (n=45) and control (n=45) groups. The data of the research will be obtained using the "Student Information Form", "Knowledge of Sexual Healthcare Scale ", "Attitude to Sexual Healthcare Scale", "Sexual Myths Scale" and "Student Opinion Form on Sexual Health Education". Ethical permission and institutional permission were obtained. The research While routine training will be given to the control group during the training, the experimental group will be given sexual health training including 16 hours of PLISSIT model teaching by the researcher. The data of the research will be obtained before the training, immediately after the training and 3 months after the training, using a data collection form.

Sexuality is a central aspect of being human that encompasses all life. Nurses play an important role in providing sexual health care to individuals. There is evidence in the literature that the knowledge and skills that nurses should have in order to provide sexual health care are not sufficient. The main reason why nurses have problems in the provide sexual health care is that the subject of sexuality is not sufficiently included in the undergraduate nursing education. Sexual health education programs should be structured in a way to effectively increase the competencies of nursing students. The use of models in sexual counseling enables students to relate theory and practice to sexual health care. In this study, sexual health training will be implemented in an innovative way by supporting the use of models in the process of providing sexual counseling to the patients of nursing students. The most commonly used PLISSIT model will be taught to nursing students while providing sexual counseling to patients and its effectiveness will be determined. In the literature, only one study was found with students on the use of the PLISSIT model in sexual health assessment. The research is planned to be pre-test post-test comparative, randomized, with one experiment and one control group, repeated measurement ın order to determine the effect of the sexual health training given to nursing students with the PLISSIT model on the myths about sexuality, sexual health care knowledge and sexual health care attitude. This research will be carried out between December 2023 and March 2024 with the participation of fourth grade students studying at Marmara University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing. Students who is suitable the inclusion criteria will be randomized to the experimental (n=45) and control groups (n=45). The data of the research will be obtained by using "Student Information Form", "Sexual Health Care Knowledge Scale", "Sexual Health Care Attitude Scale" and "Sexual Myths Scale" and "Student Opinion Form on Sexual Health Education". Ethical permission and institutional permission were obtained.During the research, while the control group receives routine training, the experimental group will be given a sexual health assessment training including 16 hours of PLISSIT model teaching by the researcher. The data of the research will be obtained by using the data collection form before the training, immediately after the training and 3 months after the training. By ensuring that nursing students learn and practice sexual health assessment, the sexual health of individuals will be protected and improved.