Nursing students' perceived attitudes toward addressing sexual health in their future profession: A longitudinal quantitative study

Background: Sexual health is a necessary component of human wellbeing. Nurses espouse holistic care but in practice often overlook a person's sexual health. Disparities linked to sexual health persist nationally and globally, including those among gender and sexual minorities. Inconsistent sexual health curriculum in nurse education in the United States has led to gaps in learning. This study aimed to understand nursing students' attitudes toward addressing sexual health issues in their future profession during an Associate of Science in Nursing program in the United States.Methods: A convenience sample of Associate of Science in Nursing students from a university voluntarily participated in this longitudinal quantitative study. All eligible students enrolled in the first semester completed the Students' Attitudes Toward Addressing Sexual Health instrument. Summary statistics and Pearson r correlation were used to analyze the data.Results: The 159 students were relatively young, female, and White, non-Hispanic. The total score of students' attitudes toward addressing sexual health was 83.48, ranging from 41 to 109. Regarding the positively loaded items of the Students' Attitudes Toward Addressing Sexual Health, the results showed students believed they would have too much to do for handling sexual issues (M = 4.44), need to get basic knowledge about sexual health (M =4.31), and take time to deal with patients' sexual issues (M = 4.24). Conclusion: In this study, nursing students reported positive attitudes toward addressing sexual health in their future profession but acknowledged they would need basic education. Due to the homogeneity of participants' backgrounds, the generalizability of study results might be limited. It is suggested that nurse educators should develop an innovative curriculum for building students' competence and prepare graduates to deliver sexual health care for meeting a person's health needs.