Effectiveness of the sexual healthcare education in nursing students' knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy on sexual healthcare

Few researchers and curricula have experimentally tested sexual healthcare education on nursing students' knowledge, attitudes and self-efficacy improvement towards sexual healthcare - a gap in the nursing evidence-base that this study was designed to address. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the sexual healthcare education on nursing students' knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy related to sexual healthcare. The experimental group (95 subjects) received the 12-week program, but the control group (95 subjects) didn't. The hierarchical linear model (HLM) was used to analyze the longitudinal changes. The results revealed that the students in the experimental group showed significant improvements over those in the control group on knowledge (β = − 0.27, P < 0.001), attitude (β = − 0.38, P < 0.001), and self-efficacy (β = − 0.90, P < 0.001). This study demonstrates that the sexual healthcare education can help nursing students enhance their knowledge and explore their own values as well as feelings on patient sexuality, and play an important role in preparing students to meet future challenges related to sexual health.