Award Date

May 2024

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Occupational Therapy Doctorate

Department

Brain Health

First Committee Member

Donnamarie Krause

Second Committee Member

Jefferson Kinney

Number of Pages

109

Abstract

Despite being an activity of daily living within the scope of Occupational Therapy, issues and concerns related to sexual health are infrequently addressed within practice. This gap is especially prevalent as it relates to women's sexual health and sexual activity specifically. This capstone project evaluated Occupational Therapists' level of knowledge and comfort when discussing sexual activity and women's sexual health. It measured the effectiveness of creating an online educational toolkit to increase knowledge and confidence. The project used a quality improvement approach with pre-and post-test surveys to determine the effectiveness of the educational toolkit to enhance knowledge and confidence in addressing sexual activity and women's sexual health. The results show that the target population showed mixed levels of confidence and knowledge related to sexual health issues and reported that they rarely initiate conversations on the topics. As a result, the topic needs to be addressed more frequently. Additionally, the pre-and post-survey results measured a slight improvement in knowledge and confidence levels. Finally, the post-survey group gave positive feedback on the effectiveness and accessibility of the online toolkit, reporting that it was helpful in facilitating patient discussions. This capstone project demonstrated the need for novel approaches to facilitate conversations on sexual activity and women's health. The educational toolkit successfully increased knowledge, comfort, and facilitated conversations and could serve as one potential approach to this goal. Ultimately, more studies are needed on topics specifically related to women's sexual health and activity.

Keywords

activities of Daily Living; communication; PLISSIT Model; sexual activity; stigma; womens health

Disciplines

Occupational Therapy

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Download


Share

COinS