Background Social educators have an important role in promoting and rehabilitating sexual health as they provide information, discuss, and support sexual health in daily life for persons living with impairments, intellectual disabilities, and complex needs. Aim The study aimed to assess the psychometrics of the Students´ Attitudes towards addressing Sexual Health Extended (SA-SH-Ext) questionnaire for social educator students. Methods A sample of 213 Norwegian social educator students was used to test internal consistency reliability and construct validity with explorative factor analysis. Outcomes Internal consistency reliability showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.906 and construct validity measured with explorative factor analysis showed good results with the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO) being high (0.929) and Bartlett´s test of sphericity being significant (P = .000). Results The SA-SH-Ext is reliable and valid for social educator students, however the psychometric assessment revealed that the domains of the SA-SH-Ext should be revised compared to the original SA-SH questionnaire. Clinical implications Measuring the effectiveness of sexual health education interventions is important and to have a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess future professionals’ attitudes towards addressing sexual health increases the ability to target specific client needs or knowledge gaps, such as addressing sexual health for persons with intellectual disabilities. Strengths and limitations: In comparison with previous studies of the original SA-SH, SA-SH-Ext has high reliability and validity. The current study was performed with classical test theory. Performing Rasch analysis may detect other psychometric issues, by improving precision and thereby providing a deeper understanding of both how to optimise a questionnaire and understand the results of a used questionnaire. Despite the response rate of 34%, the results are seen as valid considering the low correlation between response rate and validity and that the sample size was sufficient for the chosen psychometric tests. Conclusion The SA-SH-Ext is a valuable questionnaire for assessing the level of perceived preparedness among social educator students in addressing sexual health, a field often neglected in health and care.

Background: Sexual health is a new and important area for social educator students, relevant for research and pedagogical development. Integration of ongoing research projects when teaching scientific theory can improve students' subject-related skills, expertise in research methodology, and assessment of research results. Problem: The triple aim of this pilot project was to test research-oriented teaching, enhance learning about sexual health, and to explore the validity of the SASH -Ext questionnaire. Theoretical Approach: Using research-oriented teaching when teaching novel topics such as sexual health presents opportunities to deepen reflections on both research methodology and social educator students' attitudes towards addressing sexual health with users. Method: Integration with theoretical education of the research project was carried out alongside testing of face validity and content validity, as well as group discussions with social educator students. A teaching session on sexual health was also conducted. The results from the survey were presented to the students afterwards. Results: The students appreciated the research-oriented teaching, the results showed educational needs concerning sexual health, and were useful for the psychometric development of SASH -Ext. Conclusion: The pilot project shows promising findings both regarding the students' learning outcome, and the validation of SASH -Ext, but must be followed up by additional research.

According to the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, practitioners´ ability to reflect is a significant variable in meeting the need of patients for quality and coordinated services. Reflective learning seminars were organized for an intervention group midway through practice placement in order to increase student reflection skills, and to see if these skills would influence the students' learning outcomes. Questionnaires covering concrete learning goals and subjective experiences were administered before and after the internship period to fifty-eight students. These students were randomly assigned to either reflective or ordinary counseling. Results showed that the reflective counseling group talked more about their experiences from practice, indicating personal learning outcomes and more reflective behavior, compared to the control group. There were no differences in academic learning outcomes. The study points to the importance of reflective counseling as a tool for enhancing students' evidence-based practice, but longer durations of counseling might be needed to achieve an effect on academic learning outcomes