Approximately 40 years after arriving at SU as an exchange student, Dr Thomson chose to combine her expertise in community health and medical sexology by donating funds to develop a sexology curriculum at her alma mater.
She has donated 10 000 euro per year since 2019 (30 000 euro so far) and has committed herself to continue with her donations until at least 2023.
The course "Positive Sexology" aims to educate future health care professionals to include sexual health care in their defined scope of practice and expertise in an up-to-date and positive way, by increasing their knowledge about and comfortableness with the topic.
Sexology is an interdisciplinary subject that focuses on diverse aspects of human sexual behaviour and sexuality, including sexual development, human sexual response, gender and identity, intercourse, sexual dysfunction, sexually transmitted diseases, and other issues such as child sexual abuse or sexual violence.
"Sexual health comprises more than just abortions and STDs," explains Dr Marlena du Toit, a gynaecologist, medical sexologist, and part-time lecturer at SU’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. She is a member of the task team that is developing the new Positive Sexology curriculum.
"Until now, students received two lectures covering aspects of sexual medicine throughout their six years of study. This is not sufficient."
According to Dr Du Toit, the aim of the course to give young doctors the words to talk about sexual health. It follows a bio-psycho-social approach and will not only focus on the medical aspects of sexual health; students will also explore sexual health from a sociological, psychological, theological, and ethical viewpoint.
The objective is to develop knowledgeable doctors that have a broad perspective – who can start a conversation about sexual health and either assist with basic treatment solutions or recognise when patients need referral to specialists.
"With this donation we can start training a generation of doctors (hopefully including all allied health professionals) who are comfortable discussing sexual health," adds Dr Du Toit.
The course will consist of lectures and feedback from sexual health expert tutors (25%) as well as self-directed guided learning (75%).
Ultimately, students should be able to perform a complete and appropriate clinical assessment of a patient’s sexual health, propose and participate in implementing a patient-centred sexual health management plan, and actively contribute to the continuous improvement of sexual health care quality and patient safety.
Communication is key, and students should be able to not only elicit information with regards to sexual health, but also convey relevant information and explanations about sexual health to patients, while considering the patient’s perspectives, sexual health care needs, values, and goals regardless of their own convictions and beliefs.
The long-term hope is that Sexual Health will one day have its own department in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.
"The subject warrants it," says Dr Thomson. "Sexual health is truly a worldwide issue and I hope Stellenbosch University can lead the way in talking about how they are training their future health professionals in sexual health care."