Purpose: The aims of the study was to describe Indonesian nurses’ attitudes and beliefs toward providing sexuality care with cancer patients using the Sexual Attitudes and Beliefs Survey (SABS).
Methods: The study had a descriptive and correlative design. A convenience sample of 135 oncology nurses were enrolled from three hospital in Jakarta.
Results: Over 85% of nurses have attitudes and beliefs that discussing sexuality with patients is a taboo and is too private an issue. More than 90% of nurses giving a patient permission to talk about sexual concerns is a nursing responsibility. About 73.3% nurses had beliefs that most hospitalized patients are too sick to be interested in sexuality and agreed that sexuality should be discussed only if initiated by the patient. However, more than 70% of the nurses beliefs that patients expect nurses to ask about their sexual concerns.
Conclusions: The findings can help to identify nurses’ barriers to addressing patients’ sexuality. Educational programs for nurses are needed to help the nurses overcome their barriers and improve nurses’ ability to give patients the holistic care.