P4.053: Bridging Gaps in Adolescent and Adult Sexual Health: Training Medical Students as Educators

Background: The absence of a nationally standardized sexual health education curriculum has led to inconsistent and inadequate adolescent education on contraception, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and other essential topics. Existing curricula often exclude key issues such as teenage pregnancy, LGBTQ+ health, and the needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Therefore, the opportunity to provide sexual health education remains the responsibility of healthcare professionals. Not only does this improve patient-provider communication, health education can also decrease sexual risk behaviors. Despite this need, many medical school programs primarily focus on pharmacologic birth control methods, with limited formal training in counseling techniques, cultural competency, and non-hormonal options. Consequently, many healthcare trainees report hesitancy and discomfort in discussing sexual health with patients.

Methods: To address this gap, we implemented a sexual health educator training program developed by the Florida Healthy Youth Alliance, aimed at preparing medical students to serve as sexual health educators. The training focused on fostering open discussions, reducing stigma, and equipping students with effective communication techniques to educate patients on sexual and reproductive health across diverse cultural backgrounds. The study evaluated the program’s impact by administering pre-training and post-training surveys to 95 medical students, assessing their confidence in discussing sexual health topics with patients.

Results: Statistical analysis of the survey results demonstrated significant improvements in medical students’ confidence across multiple domains. Following the training, participants reported increased comfort in conducting sexual health conversations during routine adolescent and adult visits, providing guidance on contraception and STI prevention, incorporating culturally relevant approaches, and an understanding of Florida legislation on sexual health education (p < 0.001 for all domains).

Conclusion: Given the success of the training, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) will now integrate the sexual health educator training into their medical school curriculum, ensuring continued development of students’ competencies in sexual health communication, and setting a precedent for other institutions. These findings underscore the importance of integrating standardized sexual health educator training into medical curriculum to equip future physicians with the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to effectively communicate during sexual and reproductive health discussions with patients. This research as a whole provides valuable insights for educators, healthcare professionals, and public health advocates, offering evidence-based strategies to enhance medical trainees’ health education and communication techniques.