Empowering Children and Adolescents: The Role of School Nurses in Promoting Positive Sexual Health Education: A Scoping Review

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: The master's thesis explores how school nurses can promote positive sexuality among children and adolescents through sexual education. The choice of topic stems partly from the youth's engagement in the media. Sex og Samfunn's report from 2022 highlights dissatisfaction among Norwegian students with the current sexual education curriculum. Young people feel that the teaching focuses too much on negative aspects such as sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy. The aim of our study is to explore previous research on sexual education and teaching approaches to promote positive sexual health among children and adolescents. Methods: We will employ a scoping review methodology, and the research process is detailed in this extended abstract and our article. A PICO framework was used to find our search terms, and searches were conducted in the databases Cinahl, Medline, Epistemonikos, Embase, and ERIC. Results: From 406 unique records, 17 studies were included. After our analysis, we ended up with five main themes on how school nurses contribute to promoting positive sexuality. Discussion: There is a greater focus on sexual education in recent decades. However, research focusing on promoting positive sexual health and the joy associated with it is limited, with a greater emphasis placed on preventing harmful sexual behavior, unwanted pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections. The discussion addresses five factors for promoting positive sexuality and the role of the school nurse in this endeavor