Introduction
Nurses have a noble duty to deliver high quality nursing care to their patients with devotion and integrity. Like all human beings, nurses face various sexual health issues. To optimize their efficiency at the workplace, it is imperative that hospital managements create appropriate self-care wellness programs aimed at enhancing the nurses’ sexual health. Self-care programs for nurses can go a long way in promoting the nursing practitioners’ health and performance in the hospital. This paper proposes and justifies a short term, self-care wellness program on sexual health for nurses with in a hospital setting, and suggests ways of implementing the proposed program.
Self-Care Wellness Program
Nurses, like other people, face a variety of sexual health issues. These include pregnancies, abortions, sexually transmitted infections such as HIV, sexual orientation, contraception use and other illnesses and conditions associated with one’s sexual life (Charles Sturt University, 2013; Mizuno, 2013). Nurses have at least general knowledge on a variety of health issues, implying that providing them with relevant informational resources for self-care purposes can play a key role in promoting their sexual health and promoting their efficiency within their worksite (Maretoja, Leino-Kilpi and Kaira, 2004). Towards this end, a short term information-based self-care wellness program described below.
Information-Based Wellness Program
Understanding their sexual health issues and how to handle them is central to helping nurses overcome the associated challenges and enhance their efficiency. The information-based program should be geared at promoting sexual health among the nursing practitioners. As such, the hospital should have a system in which nurses have readily accessible sources of information regarding their sexual health. The wellness program should be based on providing useful, educational materials such as online resources, books, periodicals and brochures to nurses (American Council of Preventive Medicine, 2010). The material should be carefully designed to offer useful information regarding health issues such as abortions, establishing healthy sexual relationships, pregnancies, sexual orientation and management of sexually transmitted infections and blood-borne viruses such as HIV (Abott et al., 2013; Mizuno, 2013; American Institute of Preventive Medicine, 2010). The program, which can be implemented on a short-term basis, can go a long way in promoting sexual health issues’ awareness among the nursing staff. As a consequence, nurses will be more aware of the sexual health issues. This will lead to early detection of sexual diseases and conditions, which is important in better managing such an infection before it becomes chronic (Sullivan, n.d’ Powell, 1999).
In addition, the educational wellness program aimed at bolstering sexual health awareness will go a long way in enlightening nurses on adopting the most appropriate intervention measures in case a sexual health issue or disease such as syphilis occurs. It will also improve their help-seeking skills (Charles Sturt University, 2013) and help them become better managers of their own sexual health and “more responsible consumers of health care (The Wellness Council of America, 2011, p.1) As such, the nurse will be able to take appropriate measure to manage their conditions, leading to better health outcomes. More importantly, the awareness that such an educational program would create would be important in preventing sexual health issues such as sexually transmitted ailments, abortions and unhealthy sexual relationships. Figure 2 diagrams the proposed diagram (US Army Medical Department, 2013).
Figure 2: Information-based Wellness Program on Sexual Health for Nurses
The informational literature should be availed in all media, including as hardcopy printouts and online databases, to ensure accessibility by all nursing personnel targeted by the program. The nurses should be encouraged and facilitated to attend the self-care programs by the hospital management.
The reasoning behind the aforementioned program is that it would be effective in reducing the various negative impacts of sexual health issues on nursing personnel, including absenteeism and lost productivity (Sullivan, n.d; Powell, 1999). Such health issues as blood-borne diseases can cause nurses to leave the profession, or register reduced efficiency due to absenteeism and ill health (Powell, 1999). This underscores the significance of the sexual health wellness program, which emphasizes on keeping the nurses informed sufficiently with regard to the sexual health issues.
Relevance of the Program
According to Sullivan (n.d) and Powell (1999), wellness programs are essential in enhancing the health of employees and cutting down the cost of health benefits, as well as enhancing efficiency by preventing absenteeism associated with health issues. A study by Castro, Cabrera, Gee, Fujishiro and Tagalog (2013, p. 150) reported that health issues affecting nurses compromised nursing efficiency and healthcare outcomes. Lack of information may lead to sexual health issues such as unnecessarily contacting blood-borne viruses, which is a worksite health hazard (Chiou, Chiang, Huang, Wu and Chen, 2-13, p. 78; Kalichman, Cherry and Cain, 2012; Nobrega, Oliveira and Galvao, 2007). A study conducted in Malawi and whose findings apply to the nurses’ situation with regard to sexual health issues, underscored the importance of information on living with HIV and making sexual and reproductive decisions (Gombachika, Chirwa, Malata and Maluwa, 2013).
Emphasizing the importance of availing adequate information on health issues to employees, the Wellness Council of America (2011, p. 1, 6) notes that “workplace-based medical self-care initiatives help employees and their families make informed choices concerning the prevention, detection, initial treatment and follow-up of minor, self-limiting medical conditions”. Providing the necessary information implies that nurses are able to read the literature and develop awareness by themselves (US Army Medical Department, 2013; Trincoff, Le, Geiger-Brown and Lipscomb, 2007; Kalichman et al., 2007). Accordingly, they would be able to exercise preventive measures such as engaging in safe sex to avoid sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies which lead to abortions. The informed nurses would also be in the know as far as seeking timely, quality medical attention with regard to a sexual health issue such as contraception is concerned (Bednez, 2012; Erenstein and McCaffrey, 2007; Gruskin et al., 2008).
Conclusion
All in all, the information-based program would go a long way in creating sexual health awareness amongst the nurses, leading to better management of their own health. The wellness program can be implemented by designing appropriate material such as books, internet resources and other outlets, and making them available to the nurses, as well as organizing self-care workshops and encouraging and facilitating the nursing personnel to attend.
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