Characteristics and effectiveness of educational interventions to enhance nurses' competencies in providing sexual health care to people affected by cancer

Introduction: While sexual health concerns are well-recognised in people affected by cancer, health professionals may lack the knowledge and confidence necessary to assess and manage such issues in everyday clinical practice.

Objectives: We sought to evaluate the characteristics and effectiveness of educational interventions specifically developed to enhance nurses’ competencies in providing sexual health care (SHC) to people affected by cancer.

Methods: As part of a larger systematic review (PROSPERO reg. no. CRD42017065833), we searched nine electronic databases, contents of key peer-reviewed journals, and the grey literature from 2008 to 2017. We used the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool to evaluate risk of bias in the identified studies.

Results: We retrieved five articles, reporting on two randomised controlled trials and three uncontrolled, before-and-after studies. Educational interventions employed group or individual-based training, involved theory and practice applications, and used a combination of materials and didactic methods. Training on communication skills and in-clinic application of training was found to be lacking. Delivery schedules involved one-off, daily or weekly sessions. Consistently, participants’ knowledge increased post-intervention. Where attitudes/beliefs and self-confidence scores increased statistically, improvement was not clinically significant. Findings on SHC provision practices were mixed. Effectiveness was only measured between 1-12 weeks post-intervention. Risk of bias in the studies was found to be either high (performance bias, self-selection bias) or unclear.

Conclusions: More rigorous research is warranted to test multi-component educational interventions as part of continuing professional development that target nurses’ communication skills, self-confidence and clinical application/consolidation of competencies to realise actual provision of SHC in everyday practice.