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A preliminary investigation of physiotherapy students’ attitudes towards issues of sexuality in clinical practice

Abstract

Objectives

To investigate the attitudes of physiotherapy students to a variety of clinical interactions that have sexual connotations.

Design

A questionnaire was distributed that required students to indicate their anticipated level of comfort in a variety of situations. Third and fourth year students were also asked whether they perceived that their degree programme had dealt with each of these issues adequately.

Setting

One university in Australia.

Participants

Three hundred and thirty-three first, second, third and fourth year students enrolled in an undergraduate physiotherapy degree programme.

Main outcome measure

A modified version of Cohen's Comfort Scale Questionnaire.

Results

Over half of the students anticipated that they would not feel comfortable in dealing with the issues raised in nine of the 19 sexually themed items. The three items that students endorsed as the least comfortable were ‘walking in on a patient/client who is masturbating’ (95%), ‘dealing with a patient/client who makes an overt sexual remark’ (74%) and ‘dealing with a patient/client who makes a covert sexual remark’ (68%). Significant gender differences were identified for five of the items. Over 90% of third and fourth year students considered that their degree programme had not dealt with five of the items. Although approximately one-third of senior students thought that their degree programme had covered dealing with overt (33%) and covert (32%) sexual comments adequately, these items were still rated as eliciting a high level of discomfort.

Conclusions

Feelings of discomfort when interacting with clients can impact negatively on service provision and could be a major barrier to appropriate therapeutic intervention. Future research examining the nature and origin of discomfort in clinical settings and the role of undergraduate education in decreasing discomfort is warranted.

Citation

A preliminary investigation of physiotherapy students’ attitudes towards issues of sexuality in clinical practice
Rosemary Pynor, Patricia Weerakoon, Mairwen Kathleen Jones
Physiotherapy - March 2005 (Vol. 91, Issue 1, Pages 42-48, DOI: 10.1016/j.physio.2004.06.012)