The start of sexual health curriculum development and evaluation at Stellenbosch University

African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The start of sexual health curriculum development and evaluation at Stellenbosch University
 
Creator van Deventer, Heidi Ross, Michael W. Thomson, Jantien du Toit, Marlena Poelsma, Mieke Pienaar, Marie van der Merwe, Andre Botha, Matthys H.
 
Subject Family medicine; primary health care; education curriculum development; sexual health course; medical curriculum; taking a sexual history; sexual health; SHEPS.
Description Background: Stellenbosch University’s (SU) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), developed a sexual health course to be integrated throughout the revised medical curriculum.Aim: To use the Sexual Health Education for Professionals Scale (SHEPS) to gather baseline and future follow-up data to inform curriculum development and evaluation.Setting: The first-year medical students (N = 289) of the FMHS SU.Methods: The SHEPS was answered before the start of the sexual health course. The knowledge, communication and attitude sections were answered with a Likert-type scale. Students had to describe their perceived confidence in their knowledge and communication skills to care for patients within specific sexuality-related clinical scenarios. The attitude section measured the students’ level of agreement or disagreement on sexuality-related opinion statements.Results: The response rate was 97%. Most students were female, and 55% of the class were first taught about sexuality in the age group 13–18 years. The students had more confidence in their communication skills than knowledge before any tertiary training. The attitude section revealed a binomial distribution, ranging from acceptance to a more restrictive attitude towards sexual behaviour.Conclusion: It is the first time the SHEPS has been used in a South African context. The results provide novel information about the range of perceived sexual health knowledge, skills and attitudes of first-year medical students before they start tertiary training.Contribution: Findings from this study will guide content development and evaluation of the sexual health course at the institution where the study was conducted, as well as allow for culture sensitive education.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor n/a
Date 2023-03-08
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — survey
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/phcfm.v15i1.3825
 
Source African Journal of Primary Health Care & Family Medicine; Vol 15, No 1 (2023); 9 pages 2071-2936 2071-2928
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3825/6118 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3825/6119 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3825/6120 https://phcfm.org/index.php/phcfm/article/view/3825/6121
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa; Western Cape; Tygerberg Hospital February 2022 - August 2022 Age: 18; All genders; All ethnicities (although not mentioned in manuscript at all); first year medical students
Rights Copyright (c) 2023 Heidi van Deventer, Michael W. Ross, Jantien Thomson, Marlena du Toit, Mieke Poelsma, Marie Pienaar, Andre van der Merwe, Matthys H. Botha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT