Background:
Scarce evidence has been found on factors that determine physical therapist (PT) students' comfort level in addressing sexual issues with patients. Determining influential factors and barriers may help educators adjust their curriculum to better prepare students.
Objectives:
To identify the comfort level of PT students in addressing sexual issues with patients, demographic factors that impact the students' comfort level, and barriers to PT students addressing sexual issues with patients.
Study Design:
A cross-sectional survey design.
Methods:
A survey was sent to current PT students enrolled at 3 Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) programs. The survey consisted of demographic and scenario questions related to the students' comfort level in addressing sexual issues. Wilcoxon signed rank tests were performed to compare the differences in the comfort levels for male and female students. A χ2 analysis was performed to determine which demographic factors were significantly (P < .05) associated with the respondent's comfort level.
Results:
First-, second-, and third-year students (N = 106) completed the survey and represented programs from diverse geographic locations and religious affiliations. Less than half (41.5%) agreed that they had the necessary skills to address sexual issues, and only 23.58% of respondents were likely to initiate discussion. While students were most comfortable addressing issues with their own gender, collectively there was increased comfort level with conversations with females. Main barriers included lack of experience and knowledge, fear of patient misunderstanding, and patient comfort level.
Conclusion:
PT students lack comfort in addressing sexual issues due to multiple barriers. Demographic information, including geological location and religious background, was not significantly associated with comfort level (see the Video, Supplemental Digital Content 1, which summarizes this study available at: http://links.lww.com/JWHPT/A44).
Introduction.
Accreditation standards for physical therapist (PT) education require the inclusion of interprofessional education (IPE) in order to prepare health care professionals to work in collaborative environments. Additional guidelines document the need to educate PT students in the care of older adults; however, a gap in readiness for entry-level practice exists. Therefore, there were three purposes of this study that were to 1) examine the impact of an IPE experiential learning project on PT and occupational therapist (OT) students' knowledge and attitudes toward each other's professions, 2) examine students' comfort, value, and ability to work with another profession, and 3) assess the project's impact on PT and OT students' attitudes toward older adults.
Methods.
Physical therapist and OT student groups, under the supervision of faculty, evaluated a community dwelling older adult over 3 visits and developed a comprehensive wellness program, which was provided by the students on visit 4. Students completed 2 surveys: the Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale (ISVS) and Kogan's Attitude Towards Old People Scale (KAOP), prior to and at the conclusion of the project.
Results.
The Wilcoxon’s signed rank test showed significant increases after the completion of the IPE project in the total ISVS (P < .001) median scale scores for all students and on the subscales regarding the ability (P < .001), value (P < .001), and comfort (P < .001) in working with others. Significant increases were observed for all students on the total KAOP scale scores (P < .001) and the positive subscale scores (P < .001); significant decreases were observed in the negative subscale scores (P < .001).
Discussion and Conclusion.
This study demonstrates a successful IPE experiential learning project used to enhance PT and OT students' abilities, values, and comfort with collaborative practice and enhancement of PT and OT student groups' attitudes toward older adults.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.