Article A Qualitative Study of Egyptian School Nurses ’ Attitudes and Experiences Toward Sex and Relationship Education

School nurses play a vital role in the promotion of sexual health. However, there is very limited evidence of how school nurses experience this topic in an Islamic cultural setting. Using an exploratory qualitative design, 13 in-depth interviews were con-ducted with Egyptian school nurses. Data were subject to thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from this analysis, ‘‘personal issues,’ ’ ‘‘cultural and political dimensions,’ ’ ‘‘parental issues,’ ’ and ‘‘skills and confidence.’ ’ These themes represented how nurses ’ views on sex education were tempered by personal and social forces—affecting their practice. Fear of being blamed for creating a permissive culture was a feature of nurses ’ concerns in this culture. The belief that sex education is morally challenging affected nurses and must be addressed to enable effective sex education to take place. School nurses must con-tribute actively to this debate and receive governmental support. Keywords sexual and reproductive health, school nurse, sex education, cultural issues, policy and practice, education One of the key areas of school nursing in Western settings is sexual and reproductive health education (Stewart-Brown, 2006). School nurses are regarded as ideal in this respect, as they have the health knowledge and also are not regarded as ‘‘insiders’ ’ by pupils—a combination of factors that allows them to engage young people on sexual health issues effec-tively (Mullinar & Martinez, 2007). However, providing sex-ual and reproductive health (SRH) education through the formal education system is a controversial issue. Research in Western settings has found this to be a problematic area of school nursing practice often due to the sensitive nature of the topic, with opposition from parents, school manage-ment boards, and even teachers (Cleaver & Rich, 2005; Hay