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Risk Assessment~
Providing Non-Judgmental Care
Project Prepare gynecological teaching associates (GTAs) teach medical students and other health care providers to take a sexual history interview and provide informative, non-judgmental care.
GTA Objectives
Project Prepare GTAs have the following objectives in teaching sexual history interviewing skills:
- Discuss examples of how sexuality influences the patient's health throughout their lifetime
- Teach students the areas of risk assessment to address in a sexual history interview, including fertility, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the patient's well-being
- Teach students to create trust and lessen the patient's fears by sensitively discussing feelings and anxiety related to sex and sexuality
- Demonstrate the practice of clarifying euphemisms and asking about an unfamiliar sexual behavior
- Practice skills with students through role-play exercises
- Challenge students to consider clinical situations that would elicit emotions, such as anger, disgust, or sadness, and give suggestions for how to manage these emotions
Project Prepare GTAs facilitate the practice of risk assessment through sexual history interviewing by addressing issues including:
Fertility
- Is the patient preventing unwanted pregnancy?
- Does the patient have concerns about infertility?
Sexually Transmitted Disease (STDs)
- Is the patient taking precautions against STDs?
- Has the patient been tested for STDs?
- Has (have) the patient's partner(s) been tested for STDs?
- Does the patient have any questions about how STDs are transmitted?
Patient's Well-Being
- Is the patient happy with his or her sexual function or pleasure?
- Are medications, illness, or injury affecting the patient's sexual function or pleasure?
- Is the patient having the quality and type of sex he or she would like to have?
- Does the patient have trouble communicating about sex?
- Is the patient being asked or forced to participate in sexual activity that is uncomfortable and/or traumatizing?
- Does the patient have any sexual abuse history issues?
Project Prepare GTAs teach students that the health care provider's role is to help the patient make the healthiest choice possible, not to make the patient's decisions. One of the methods used by Project Prepare GTAs to demonstrate how to provide non-judgmental care is the PLISSIT model:
Permission The health care provider gives the patient permission to engage in consensual sexual activity. The provider is mindful of whether the patient seeks permission to engage in or refuse a proposed sexual behavior.
Limited Information The health care provider provides written and/or verbal information (e.g. birth control options and STD prevention).
Specific Suggestions The health care provider provides written and/or verbal suggestions (e.g. how to improve sexual function and communication skills).
Intervention and Treatment The health care provider provides resources for patient to seek further help and information from counselors, therapists, sex educators, and other health care providers.
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