Aboriginal nurses' perception of facilitators and barriers for taking a sexual history in Taiwan

The potential for risky sexual behaviors and adolescent unplanned pregnancy has become a main concern in the health care system for aborigines in eastern Taiwan. Using aboriginal nurses to provide information on sexual behaviors may have potential as a means of promoting healthy sexual practices among aborigines. This study explored aboriginal nurses' perceptions of facilitators and barriers for taking a sexual history. Several health centers in eastern Taiwan were randomly selected to recruit subjects in 2000. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 206 female nurses (age = 28.4, SD = 7.4) who worked in various clinical units. These aboriginal nurses perceive the major facilitators in taking a sexual history to be having attended a communication training course and experiencing a needle stick accident; they want to prevent themselves or colleagues from becoming infected. The major perceived barriers to taking sexual history result from patients' feeling embarrassed and not knowing how to answer the questions and patients' purposely concealing information. Decreasing these barriers and reinforcing facilitators about taking a sexual history is an important task for nursing education, and nurses can play an important role in promoting aborigines' sexual health and decreasing the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases in this population.