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Sexuality is an intrinsic characteristic of all humans, which is multifactorial and encompasses aspects of the physical, social, spiritual, and moral person. It is an important aspect of the human experience and comprises a portion of how people view themselves. Patients, even if they are ill, still are sexual beings and nurses must open communication about sexuality and sexual problems. If nurses are to treat the whole person, sexuality issues must be addressed. It is important to address these issues because sexual dysfunction is a prevalent problem. In a study of approximately 3,000 men and women, Laumann, Paik, and Rosen (1999) found that greater than 30% of men and over 40% of women reported sexual dysfunction. With the advent of new therapies for both men and women, now more than ever, it is the health care clinician's responsibility to identify sexual problems and facilitate patients in finding appropriate treatment options.
Barriers to Discussing Sexuality
Unfortunately, often times sexual health issues are not addressed by health care clinicians, and patients do not always feel comfortable initiating discussion about these issues (Araujo, Durante, Feldman, Goldstein, & McKinlay, 1998; Baldwin, Ginsberg, & Harkaway, 2000). It is important to identify some of the barriers to dealing with sexuality, to understand why sexual issues are not always dealt with. Maurice (1999) identified some of the barriers as a fear of being offensive to patients, fear of legal ramifications, lack of knowledge about treatment options and what to do with the patients' answers, and a perception that there is no need to ask about sexual problems. Clinicians do not feel comfortable exploring patients' problems for which they have no knowledge base for solutions. Even in the urology clinic, sexual issues may not be addressed (Araujo et al., 1998), possibly related to the time it takes to evaluate and...