Abstracts of sexuality articles by medical, nursing, and social work students: Preferences for journal and topic

Abstract

S OF SEXUALITY ARTICLES BY MEDICAL, NURSING, AND SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS: PREFERENCES FOR JOURNAL AND TOPIC S. Michael Plaut, Susan E. Hetherington, and Paul H. Ephross Members of various professional disciplines tend to be socialized in characteristic ways that determine, among other things, the types of literature search techniques they use, the journals in which they publish, and the jour-nals that they read and cite (Crane, 1972; Hull, 1977; Merton, 1973). This socialization process often begins during the earliest stages of professional education and may eventually have the effect of increasing the isolation of professional groups from one another. For example, the professional interests of nurses typically overlap considerably with those of both medicine and the social sciences. Yet, in a survey of 44 nursing courses, Lenz (1985) found that required course readings were taken only from nursing journals in 76No of the cases. These findings raise the question as to whether students in the health professions, when left to their own devices, reinforce this tendency toward isolation by gravitating toward journals of their respective professions. Sexuality is a subject that is treated in journals normally associated with such fields as medicine, nursing, and social work, as well as in publications not specifically associated with any one discipline. It is possible that members of each of these professions approach the broad area of sexuality in characteristic ways. However, to the extent that these approaches are determined by a socialized reliance on restricted literature resources, both learning and interprofessional communication in this important area could be unnecessarily hampered. In the Intimate Human Behavior course taught on our campus, students of medicine, nursing, and social work are asked to submit a number of annotated bibliographies based on readings in any chosen aspect of sexuality, taken from any chosen source. We determined the extent to which students in the three professional schools sought their articles from journals associated with their own professions when they had been assigned the area of sexuality and intimacy. In addition, topics selected by the three student groups were examined to determine the extent to which their interests differed within the broad field of sexuality and intimacy and how this related to the journal selection patterns. S. Michael Plaut, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics and Assistant Dean for Student Affairs at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Susan E. Hetherington, CNM, DrPH, is Professor in the Department of Maternal-Child Nursing at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Paul H. Ephross, PhD, is Professor in the University of Maryland School of Social Work and Community Planning. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Danny Huang, Elizabeth Lenz, and Susan M. Gruber in the preparation of this paper. Requests for reprints should be sent to S. Michael Plaut, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21201. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.57 on Mon, 08 Aug 2016 05:45:49 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms