Sexual health education in healthcare training remains inconsistent across disciplines, resulting in significant knowledge gaps among students. This gap in education leads to inadequate support for patients, particularly those experiencing disability or undergoing treatments that affect sexual health and functioning. This study aims to explore the current state of sexuality-related training among interdisciplinary healthcare professional students at one university and evaluate their perceived need and interest in sexual health education. Seventy-four healthcare professional students from five disciplines responded to a survey, with most (76.4%;) reporting low levels of perceived preparedness to address patients’ sexual health needs and low estimates of class time devoted to topics about sexual functioning (M = 1.70 hours; SD = 2.2). Students also ranked the participating healthcare disciplines by responsibility to address sexual health needs, which yielded a range of responses, suggesting opportunities for enhancing interdisciplinary education about scopes of practice and responsibility. Findings from this survey study will inform the development of comprehensive, inclusive educational programs to better prepare future healthcare professionals to address sexuality as a core component of holistic, patient-centered care.
Eglseder et al. (Mon,) studied this question.