Nursing practice in sexual dimension of patients: Literature review

Background: Sexuality is human rights, a fundamental part of healthy life which is defined as the absence of illness, social, emotional, mental and physical welfare in relation to the sexuality and has become the consideration of health service aspect. Sexual health is one of the parts of the patient's holistic needs in which the nurse has the responsibility and nursing practice through sexual education. Sexual dimension is not an easy to discuss since culturally it is not easy to express. So, it has become a topic which needs to be explored. Purpose: To identify the description of nursing practice in the patient's sexual health dimension and various factors which obstruct the implementation of sexual discussion. Methods: The research was conducted using databases such as PubMed, MEDLINE, ProQuest and Google Scholar. The articles were published within the period of 2000-2018. The synthesis was done based on twenty articles with the main variables namely attitude, belief, nursing practice and obstacles in sexual discussion which comply the checklist of Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Checklist. Results: There were five main topics which elaborated nursing practice when discussing sexual topic with the patient, namely the attitude in discussing sexuality topic, the level of comfort and self confidence in the discussion, initiation in discussing sexuality, spending time in discussing sexuality and the obstacle in conducting sexual discussion. Conclusion: Lack of knowledge and the lack of continuity of education through training was one of the factors that obstructed sexual discussion with the patient. (C) 2020 Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.