Midwifery Students’ Experiences about Sexual Dysfunction Course: A Qualitative Study

Background: A review of the literature in both national and international databases revealed no study published in Iran on the challenges of sexual dysfunction courses. The qualitative examination of individuals’ experiences would contribute to a more authentic and deeper understanding of the challenges of the sexual dysfunction course. This study aimed to delve into midwifery students’ experiences about the sexual dysfunction course.Materials and Methods: In this qualitative study, a combination of Hsieh and Shannon’s methods was used to analyze the data. In this study, ۱۴ junior and senior midwifery students were selected using a purposive sampling method. The data was collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews in person. In this study, MAXQDA software version ۱۰ was used for the data analysis.Results: After conducting ۱۴ interviews with the midwifery students, ۸۳۴ primary codes were preliminarily extracted from the interviews. Then similar codes were merged, and eventually, during this inductive process, ۱۳ codes were extracted as five subcategories, three categories, and one main theme (namely "inadequacy of formal curricula for sexual education and cultural inadequacies." According to the participants’ experiences, the following three categories were detected: "problems in the theoretical and clinical plans of sexual education and its implementation", "necessity of empowering professors", and "improper cultural context for sexual education".Conclusion: The present findings indicated that the curricula of the sexual dysfunction course do not fulfill the learners’ educational needs, and the syllabi of the course should be reviewed and modified. According to the participants, the universities lack human resources to teach sexual dysfunction courses, and a proper cultural context should be established for sexual education.

Keywords:

Experiences , Midwifery , Students , Sexual Dysfunction Course , Qualitative study