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Evaluating sexual function education for patients after a spinal cord injury
1Clinical Nurse Specialist, London Spinal Cord Injury Centre, Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, London.
Aim:
this article shares findings from a service evaluation exploring the views of patients relating to the specialist sexual function education and information provided following a spinal cord injury.
Background:
education optimises patients' involvement in their own decision-making and care processes, with the aim of promoting adherence to agreed plans, reducing the risks of post-injury complications, promoting independence and improving quality of life. Sexual function is a well-known quality-of-life indicator and it has been widely documented that it is not well addressed following spinal cord injury. A previous service evaluation exploring education provided to patients with spinal cord injury identified the need for improved provision of sexual function education/information. As a result, weekly 1-hour sessions focused on sexual function for up to three patients of the same sex were held, facilitated by a clinical nurse specialist. The sessions had an open forum structure. They were initially designed to discuss thoughts and feelings around intimacy and sex after a spinal cord injury, but focused on group members' requests. In addition, patients were offered a one-to-one session where the 'mechanics' of sex could be discussed in further detail.
Design And Methods:
a service evaluation used a questionnaire survey to collect data from a purposive convenience sample of spinal cord injury patients. Data were collected between July and September 2018. Participants completed a locally designed paper questionnaire, which included Likert-style questions and space to add free text comments. Descriptive analysis of the data was used.
Results:
survey results suggest that the newly formed sexual function education session is positively evaluated in terms of usefulness and all attendees to date would recommend this session to other patients.
Conclusions And Recommendations:
following completion of data analysis, findings will inform the further development of sexual function education, with a particular focus on tailoring it to the patient and reducing the stigma around talking about sex.
