Women with vulvodynia: awareness and knowledge of its care among student healthcare staff.

BACKGROUND: Many women with vulvodynia are women of fertile age, and this syndrome may cause many physical and psychosexual functional disorders. Women with vulvodynia often find that healthcare professionals seem to demonstrate a lack of awareness about the syndrome and its care. These issues have not been previously studied among student healthcare staff.

AIM: To investigate awareness and knowledge about vulvodynia and its care among staff in the student healthcare sector in Finland.

METHOD: The study design was cross sectional. A survey instrument called 'Awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care' was developed for this study and was used for data collection. The data were collected from a web-based survey conducted with student healthcare professionals (N = 191, n = 79) in all 13 student healthcare units in Finland. Descriptive statistical methods were used to describe the connections between the factors associated with awareness of vulvodynia and its care. Ethical standards were followed throughout the study.

RESULTS: The primary results of the study indicated that the respondents had somewhat good awareness of how to identify vulvodynia and somewhat poor awareness of the treatments for vulvodynia. Participants' awareness of the meaning of encountering patients, as well as the information and support they provided, was good. Based on the knowledge test, knowledge of vulvodynia and its care was estimated to be poor. The respondents' experience-based skills in treating vulvodynia and education about vulvodynia were mostly associated with better awareness and knowledge about vulvodynia and its care.

CONCLUSION: The student healthcare staff who meet and care for women of fertile age have irregular awareness and knowledge of vulvodynia and its care. The creation of educational programs to develop such awareness and knowledge is recommended to obtain a standard quality of care for all women with vulvodynia.