Cargando…

From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health

A body of work emerging in the last few years has expanded the focus of youth sexual health to include problems in sexual functioning. Recent surveys show that rates of youth sexual functioning problems are similar to those of adults. Physicians' lack of awareness about problems of sexual funct...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: O'Sullivan, Lucia F., Majerovich, Jo Ann, Wuest, Judith
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7774441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33415225
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2377960819832676
_version_ 1783630267221540864
author O'Sullivan, Lucia F.
Majerovich, Jo Ann
Wuest, Judith
author_facet O'Sullivan, Lucia F.
Majerovich, Jo Ann
Wuest, Judith
author_sort O'Sullivan, Lucia F.
collection PubMed
description A body of work emerging in the last few years has expanded the focus of youth sexual health to include problems in sexual functioning. Recent surveys show that rates of youth sexual functioning problems are similar to those of adults. Physicians' lack of awareness about problems of sexual functioning has been identified as a major obstacle in treatment. Yet little is known about health-care provider (HCP) perspectives on youth sexual functioning. We conducted a descriptive qualitative study with HCPs to learn about their perceptions of adolescent sexual problems and HCP roles in managing these issues including sexual functioning. Nineteen HCPs: Family physicians, nurse practitioners, and public health nurses working primarily with youth in universities, schools, or sexual health clinics were recruited to draw on their expert knowledge and experience. All completed in-depth individual interviews. Data were analyzed using directed qualitative content analysis. Our findings illuminate inconsistent views. Some HCPs, particularly those in youth-focused services, adopt a holistic role in promoting healthy sexual functioning, and others, commonly those in general practice, attend only to biomedical issues related to sexual dysfunction. All HCPs in our study were challenged by a paucity of sexual health preparation in their formal education. HCP interest in youth sexual health affected their efforts to acquire new information and training and, along with the structure of their practice setting, influenced whether they framed their role in youth sexual health holistically within a context of social determination or constrained their role to a medical model. These findings draw attention to the need for new approaches for strengthening knowledge, training, and resources to foster HCP promotion of healthy sexual functioning and prevention of lifelong sexual health problems.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7774441
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher SAGE Publications
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77744412021-01-06 From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health O'Sullivan, Lucia F. Majerovich, Jo Ann Wuest, Judith SAGE Open Nurs Original Research Article A body of work emerging in the last few years has expanded the focus of youth sexual health to include problems in sexual functioning. Recent surveys show that rates of youth sexual functioning problems are similar to those of adults. Physicians' lack of awareness about problems of sexual functioning has been identified as a major obstacle in treatment. Yet little is known about health-care provider (HCP) perspectives on youth sexual functioning. We conducted a descriptive qualitative study with HCPs to learn about their perceptions of adolescent sexual problems and HCP roles in managing these issues including sexual functioning. Nineteen HCPs: Family physicians, nurse practitioners, and public health nurses working primarily with youth in universities, schools, or sexual health clinics were recruited to draw on their expert knowledge and experience. All completed in-depth individual interviews. Data were analyzed using directed qualitative content analysis. Our findings illuminate inconsistent views. Some HCPs, particularly those in youth-focused services, adopt a holistic role in promoting healthy sexual functioning, and others, commonly those in general practice, attend only to biomedical issues related to sexual dysfunction. All HCPs in our study were challenged by a paucity of sexual health preparation in their formal education. HCP interest in youth sexual health affected their efforts to acquire new information and training and, along with the structure of their practice setting, influenced whether they framed their role in youth sexual health holistically within a context of social determination or constrained their role to a medical model. These findings draw attention to the need for new approaches for strengthening knowledge, training, and resources to foster HCP promotion of healthy sexual functioning and prevention of lifelong sexual health problems. SAGE Publications 2019-05-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7774441/ /pubmed/33415225 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2377960819832676 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Original Research Article
O'Sullivan, Lucia F.
Majerovich, Jo Ann
Wuest, Judith
From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health
title From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health
title_full From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health
title_fullStr From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health
title_full_unstemmed From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health
title_short From Promoting Healthy Sexual Functioning to Managing Biomedical Sexual Dysfunction: Health Professional Views of Youth Sexual Health
title_sort from promoting healthy sexual functioning to managing biomedical sexual dysfunction: health professional views of youth sexual health
topic Original Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7774441/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33415225
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2377960819832676
work_keys_str_mv AT osullivanluciaf frompromotinghealthysexualfunctioningtomanagingbiomedicalsexualdysfunctionhealthprofessionalviewsofyouthsexualhealth
AT majerovichjoann frompromotinghealthysexualfunctioningtomanagingbiomedicalsexualdysfunctionhealthprofessionalviewsofyouthsexualhealth
AT wuestjudith frompromotinghealthysexualfunctioningtomanagingbiomedicalsexualdysfunctionhealthprofessionalviewsofyouthsexualhealth