Abstract
Sexuality is a fundamental human occupation, yet research shows practitioners and clients rarely address these issues within OT practice. This presentation discusses the results of a web-based survey of 80 entry-level OT educators regarding attitudes and perceptions about teaching topics related to sexuality. The researchers aim to encourage future research and educational practices focusing on increasing the delivery of sexuality content within entry-level OT education.
Primary Author and Speaker: Nada Metti
Additional Authors and Speakers: Angela Swindell, Rachel Walling, Kalyn Justice, and Shaunna Kelder
Contributing Authors: Jennifer Summers, Kathryn Barnhart
Participation in meaningful occupations is shown to have a direct correlation with increased health and overall well-being. Occupations related to sexuality fall under the domain of occupational therapy; however, sexuality topics continue to be poorly addressed in occupational therapy education. This cross-sectional study aimed to identify current attitudes and perceptions of occupational therapy educators regarding comfort, knowledge, level of support offered by programs, and scope of practice related to sexuality to provide insight on current educational practices. A total of 80 educators employed by accredited entry-level occupational therapy programs in the United States participated in a researcher-developed, web-based survey. Questions were close-ended and consisted of multiple-choice, checkbox, and Likert-type response options. The research team carefully analyzed the responses of the participants using the Statistical Analysis System software. Quantitative data analyses included descriptive statistics such as counts, frequencies, and percentages. The current study found evidence to support that educators in entry-level occupational therapy programs are comfortable teaching sexuality-based topics despite their personal beliefs, agree that sexuality is within the scope of practice, and would include more topics on sexuality in their curriculum if they had more training. Although half of the educators felt their program would support the teaching of sexuality, less than half agreed that their program prioritizes teaching these topics. This improved understanding will encourage future research on educational practices to increase sexuality content within occupational therapy education. Increasing sexuality content may better prepare occupational therapy practitioner students to address sexuality-based occupational performance issues with patients.
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