Sexuality Within Occupational Therapy Education: Assessing Faculty and Student Perceived Competence

Abstract

Sexuality is a valuable activity of daily living that contributes to an individual’s quality of life. Although sexuality can be addressed in occupational therapy practice, it is often overlooked due to a lack of time, comfort, and knowledge. For sexuality content to be fully incorporated into practice, it has been suggested that education will facilitate the inclusion of sexuality topics into occupational therapy practice. The purpose of this survey study was to assess occupational therapy faculty and students’ perceived competence with addressing sexuality, to determine the methods of sexuality education, and the time spent on the topic in occupational therapy curriculums. A piloted 13-question survey was electronically mailed to program directors of accredited occupational therapy programs in the United States for them to forward to their faculty and students. The survey was available for four weeks, with a reminder sent at the two-week mark. Data was collected from Qualtrics at the end of the response window and themed by the occupational therapy doctoral student and the faculty mentor. A majority of faculty felt competent addressing sexuality (76%) and a majority of students felt neutral (34%) about discussing sexuality with their future clients. The most frequently reported amount of time being spent on sexuality topic education was one to two hours (41%). A majority of respondents felt that sexuality is an essential topic and should be incorporated into occupational therapy curriculums further.

Keywords

• occupational therapy
• sexuality
• curriculum
• education