Sexuality is considered an important aspect of holistic care, but research has shown that it is often not considered, as it should be, in health services. Addressing clients’ sexuality requires a multidisciplinary approach and is not the responsibility of a single professional. The literature underlines that university students or those working in hospitals and other health care facilities are not adequately prepared to meet patients’ needs regarding sexuality. The objective of this study was, therefore, to review the scientific literature addressing training courses for health professionals in sexuality between 2000 and 2020. Several studies have shown enhancement in health care professionals’ ability to deal with patients’ sexuality issues after participating in sexuality education programs, regardless of the course load and modality, even if the long-term effects have still to be proved. Health care professionals therefore require education in the area of sexuality, regardless of their discipline. According to the articles reviewed, in order to improve the performance and comfort level of health care professionals to deal with patients’ sexuality, investments in training are necessary. Further evaluations of interdisciplinary sexuality education programmes should use larger samples and explore the differences across disciplines.

The use of social networking services (SNSs) has been reported as one of the favorite activities for adolescents. Over the past decade, SNSs have become some of the most important venues for connecting, communicating, and socializing, as well as identity-building and self-expression. Adolescence is the phase during which individuals construct a critical part in the process of constructing their sexual identity and gender. In the literature, it is suggested that SNSs have become venues for young people to construct and express themselves, and this can produce positive and negative effects. SNSs offer several opportunities for adolescents to explore their sexuality, and cybersex is often the first activity through which teenagers can explore their sexuality freely and without biases. SNS use inevitably affects and is related to adolescents’ sexuality and relationships with peers, sometimes with increasing inclination to risk-taking attitudes and related behaviors. Therefore, our aim of this paper was to explore and address the way in which social media and SNSs are affecting and changing not only adolescent sexuality, but also the type of relationship adolescents establish in their first sexual experiences, including possible risky consequences like cyberbullying, sexting, revenge pornography, excessive use of the Internet, and risky sexual behaviors. Specifically, research will be discussed on the development and evolution of sexuality of adolescents and young adults, also illustrating the clinical consequences.

Coronavirus is an infectious disease that has affected many countries, changing daily life. For many individuals, sexual activity has decreased, physical contact within couples has been reduced. Obviously, to maintain a safe sex life, it is essential to know how to avoid the virus transmission. Distance creates irritability, fear, anxiety, endangering sexual life: it is reasonable to have sex between cohabiting partners unless one or both are at risk of infection. Despite this, the pandemic allows us to think of new sexual intimacies mediated by sextoys and technology. Not all distant couples are willing to have sex online, and it is difficult for singles to engage in casual sexual relations, so after the pandemic there will be many couples who will have to remodel and many singles who will seek a partner. Using the Internet to maintain active sexual activity appeared to be an excellent alternative to diminish the distance between partners or to increase online knowledge. The most common advice for separated couples was to maintain constant digital contact to alleviate nostalgia and lack. This was the springboard to use sexting, meeting via webcam or making a hot call that make the couple more uninhibited. Using the webcam, also sometimes with the possibility to use sex toys, could create also the opportunity to enrich the future sexual repertoire. Practicing online sex with the stable partner far from home has helped some to keep their desire active and to satisfy it in order to be able to realize it once the pandemic has ended. The purpose of this narrative review of available evidence on sexuality during COVID-19 pandemics is to provide recommendations to help people facing their sexual life in this critical period.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related restrictions significantly impacted individuals' health, wellbeing, and security. Isolation, limitation of movement, social distancing, and forced cohabiting have had a strong influence on all areas of people's lives as well as on their sexuality. Investigating how the COVID-19 outbreak and its consequences impacted people's sexuality was the primary aim of this review. Particularly, we focused on: (1) the variables associated with the improvement or the deterioration of individuals' and couples' lives during the pandemic; (2) the use of sex as a coping strategy; (3) the impact of COVID-19 outbreak on LGBT people. Results have shown that the worsening of sexual life seems to be related to couples' conflict, emotions and psychological difficulties, being female, being single or away from the partner, being a health care worker, and having children. Moreover, a detrimental effect on sexuality was associated with stress, forced cohabitation, routine, anxiety and worry about the job and the pandemic, feeling partner distance, being unhappy with their partner, and lack of privacy. On the other hand, improvements in sexuality were associated with living happily with a partner, being happy and satisfied with a partner, feeling less stressed and more bored, having more free time, having fewer recreation opportunities, and having minor workload. During the pandemic, there was an increase in using sex toys, pornography consumption, masturbating, and trying sexual experimentations. Among LGBT people, an increase was found in the number of casual sexual partners potentially due to the perceived lower likelihood of transmission through sex. Moreover, the increase in sexual activity may have represented a coping strategy to quarantine-related distress.

Aims: The aim was to explore nurses’ experiences of caring for and accompanying patients dying without the presence of family during the COVID‐19 pandemic.Design: A qualitative descriptive design was used.Methods: A purposive sample of registered nurses, caring for dying patients in Italian health‐care settings during the COVID‐19 pandemic, were selected. To capture a broad range of experiences, a maximum variety of participants about workplace, age, gender and work experience were included. A total of 31 nurses agreed to participate in the study; 28 participants were female; participants were aged 41 on average (range 25–63 years) and worked in hospitals and nursing homes in the Northern and Central Italian regions. Six focus groups were conducted from August to December 2020 through Microsoft Teams, reaching data saturation. The transcripts were analysed through inductive content analysis. The COREQ checklist was followed for study reporting.Results: Four main categories emerged describing nurses’ experiences: hugely increased deaths in time of COVID‐19; ensuring physical, emotional, interpersonal and spiritual care for dying patients and supporting their families despite difficulties; ensuring care procedures of patients’ bodies after death and psychological consequences of caring for dying people during the pandemic.Conclusion: Registered nurses provided physical, spiritual and emotional care to dying patients during the pandemic, despite limited resources and knowledge, standing in for relatives who were not allowed to visit them; the experiences of caring for dying patients in the absence of the family caused emotional distress in nurses.Impact: Health‐care systems should develop guidelines aiming to meet the psychological needs of dying people in case of restrictions on patients’ family visits. Health‐care administrators should offer services to support the grieving process of relatives who cannot accompany dying patients and to reduce emotional distress in nurses caring for dying patients.

An increasing number of people use the Internet for Online Sexual Activities (OSA). This sexual revolution has resulted in both positive and negative aspects, enriching sexual functioning but also providing other risks for criminal, negative and harmful sexual conducts, or Online Sexual Problems (OSP). A deeper understanding of Internet sexuality is therefore important for practitioners who work in the psychological and sexological fields. Current studies on Internet sexuality span a broad spectrum with respect to data collection: interviews, questionnaires, observations, content analyses and Internet log file recordings have all been used. The aim of this paper is to offer the most complete overview of these instruments focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of different tools currently available to assess different dimensions of OSA, and to suggest a simple screener for OSP. A systematic search of published online sexual activities inventories was performed using PsychInfo and Pubmed (1993 to July 2013). Although many of them are adequate for their own purposes, our review revealed a lack of standardized, internationally (culturally) accepted tools that are epidemiologically validated in general populations and that can be used to investigate OSA and to assess OSP. The definitions of OSA and OSP continue to change and basic tools are essential to have a broader idea of the phenomenon and of the challenges and possibilities emerging from the double link between the Internet and sexuality. More accurate instruments are also necessary to help advanced clinical diagnosis and treatment for OSP.