Occupational therapy students' views on addressing sexual health

Background: Sexual health is an important issue in daily life, but little is known about occupational therapy (OT) students' views on these matters.

Aim: To explore occupational therapy students' views on addressing sexual health in their future professional role.

Material and methods: A descriptive qualitative study involving 37 OT students in 5 focus groups was performed and analyzed using content analysis.

Results: Three categories: 'Sexual health is part of occupational therapy and but not of the OT educational program'; 'Need for knowledge to identify and intervene related to sexual health problems'; and finally, 'Communication about sexual health-unknown, untried, but necessary', formed the theme, 'Willing to try, wanting to know more, and recognizing not only the difficulties and challenges but also the importance of sexual health in OT practice'.

Conclusions: OT-students consider sexual health as part of OT-practice, but experience lack of knowledge of sexual health related to disease/disability, cultural diversity, and age and sexual orientation. Educational programs need to cover these matters, including how to address sexual health in OT-practice, to enhance OT's future competence related to promotion of sexual health for clients.

Significance: Knowledge on students' views are vital to guide education on this important, rather neglected, area.