Evaluation of a new sexual health counselling training for healthcare providers

Abstract

Background: Patients with chronic diseases, such as HIV, indicate that they desire more information and discussion on sexuality from their healthcare professionals. However, healthcare professionals experience several barriers in providing sexual health counselling. Therefore, this study evaluates a new sexual health counselling training on healthcare professionals' intention and behaviour regarding discussing sexuality with patients. Method: This study employs a quantitative non-randomized cross-sectional design. Data concerning demographic variables, social norms, self-efficacy, perceived skills, intention and behaviour from 178 healthcare professionals from various work fields was gathered through questionnaires over three time points. Results: A multiple regression analysis indicated that attitude, social norms and self-efficacy have a positive relation with intention. Perceived skills was not found to be significantly related to intention. An independent t-test indicated that intention scores had a significant positive difference between the pre-test and post-test assessment. Discussion and conclusion: The positive relation between the determinants and intention aligns with previous research, except for perceived skills. The positive difference in intention scores, contrasts earlier research. However, methodological limitations, such as sample size variation and a non-randomized design, warrant cautious interpretation. Future research could benefit from a randomised controlled trial and should investigate training for specific work fields.