What keeps nurses from the sexual counseling of patients with heart failure?
OBJECTIVE
We sought to examine the current practice of discussing sexual health by heart failure (HF) nurses, and to explore which barriers prevent nurses from discussing sexuality.


METHODS
The Nurses' Survey of Sexual Counseling of Myocardial Infarction Patients and a list of barriers were used to form a questionnaire, which was sent to all HF clinics (n = 122) in the Netherlands.


RESULTS
The majority (75%) of nurses (n = 146) felt a certain responsibility to discuss patients' sexual health. However, in practice, 61% of the nurses rarely or never addressed sexuality. Barriers that prevented nurses from addressing sexuality and that differed between nurses who do (n = 58) and do not (n = 88) discuss sexuality include a lack of organizational policy (49% vs. 79%, respectively; P < .001) and lack of training (43% vs. 80%, respectively; P < .001), and not knowing how to initiate the subject (24% vs. 72%, respectively; P < .001). Nurses preferred to address sexuality during a follow-up visit or when discussing medication.


CONCLUSIONS
Although HF nurses feel responsible for discussing sexuality, this topic is rarely addressed in clinics. Several barriers were identified, relating to personal, patient, and organizational factors.
Department of Cardiology, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands. t.hoekstra@umcg.nl
Tialda
T
Hoekstra
Ivonne
I
Lesman-Leegte
Margriet F
MF
Couperus
Robbert
R
Sanderman
Tiny
T
Jaarsma
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002300:Cardiac Care Facilities; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000150:complications / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D012731:Sex Counseling / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires