Sexual Health in Nursing History-Taking: How to Open the Conversation

On 30 September 2026, the Faculty of Health Studies at Jan Evangelista Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic, will bring the WSHD 2026 theme “Every Body” into the education of future nurses.

A 20–25-minute interactive session will be incorporated into Clinical Propedeutics for second-year students in the three-year Bachelor’s degree programme in General Nursing. Students will examine how illness, medication, surgery and hospitalisation can affect sexual health and intimate life.

Using a fully fictional clinical scenario, they will practise normalising the relevance of sexual health, asking permission to raise the subject, beginning with a neutral open question, respecting a patient’s decision not to discuss it, and recognising both the limits of the nursing role and the need for appropriate referral. The session will emphasise privacy, consent, dignity and non-stigmatising communication. No real patient information will be used, and students will not be asked to share personal experiences.

A concise Czech–English educational handout will summarise the communication sequence. The teaching framework is informed by the World Health Organization’s Brief sexuality-related communication recommendations; the handout will not be presented as a validated questionnaire or clinical guideline.

Submitted jointly by Marek Broul, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, FECSM (ORCID 0000-0002-5652-1652), Session Lead, and Assoc. Prof. Michal Vostrý, PhDr., Ph.D. (ORCID 0000-0003-4749-3095), Dean.