Author(s)

Izzeddin A. Abu Bdair^1*, Rose E. ConsTantino²

¹School of Nursing, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan.
²School of Nursing, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

Background: Sexual health is an important and integral part of human health. Patients often voice their concerns regarding their sexual health after experiencing coronary artery diseases. Nurses face many barriers to conduct sexual health assessment. Although many sexual health instructions have been developed, nurses still pay little attention to sexual health assessment. Purpose: The purpose of this literature review was to identify the barriers and strategies that promoted sexual health assessment in clinical nursing practice. Design: A comprehensive search of the recent literature related to barriers and promoting strategies to sexual health assessment was undertaken. Methods: A review of literature published over the last 10 years on a wide variety of recent studies in nursing and related discipline in the field of sexual health was performed. Findings: Most studies indicated that sexual health was poorly addressed in clinical settings. Barriers to addressing sexual health are multifactorial; we classified them into four categories: patients related barriers, nurses related barriers, organizational related barriers and value related barriers. Many strategies to enhance sexual health assessment and counseling in clinical setting are summarized. Conclusion: Overall, it is evident that nurses encounter many barriers to sexual health assessment. Therefore, investigating these barriers and developing appropriate interventions are recommended.

Sexual Health, Barriers, Nurses, Jordan, Coronary Artery Diseases

Bdair, I. and ConsTantino, R. (2017) Barriers and Promoting Strategies to Sexual Health Assessment for Patients with Coronary Artery Diseases in Nursing Practice: A Literature Review. Health, 9, 473-492. doi: 10.4236/health.2017.93034.