[Knowledge levels and attitudes of nursing trainees regarding sexuality in old age - An explorative quantitative...

Knowledge levels and attitudes of nursing trainees regarding sexuality in old age - An explorative quantitative survey Abstract. Background: In professional geriatric nursing, sexuality in old age is often tabooed - in spite of this demographic group having the desire to live their sexuality. Generally, the possibility to experience sexuality - for example in nursing homes - is limited. Aim: The main objective of this study is to portray the knowledge and attitudes of geriatric nursing trainees towards sexuality in old age in cross section, and to analyze possible differences between training years. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted with written standardized surveys of 420 trainees on three research questions: (1) sexuality in old age and its role during class, (2) subjective vs. objective sex education, and (3) sexual assistance and attitudes towards it. Differences between years of education and subgroups were analyzed statistically (Kruskal-Wallis- and chi-square tests). Results: Results showed that addressing sexuality in old age during lessons was perceived to increase with a higher training year. However, 15.1 % experienced it as being exclusively negative. Concerning objective sex education, 15.7 % misjudged frequent masturbation as being psychologically harmful or did not know better. Furthermore, 9.3 % believed homosexuality to be a disease. Differences between years of training could not be found in these variables. The knowledge about sexual assistance increased with higher training years. Conclusions: Regarding these results, we suggest that the subject of sexuality in old age should be intensified as part of the curriculum for geriatric nursing from an early stage on. The aim should be to reduce tabooing and to increase the level of knowledge.