The purpose of our final project was to describe the present situation of sex education in upper secondary schools and vocational colleges in Finland as well as the role of a school nurse in sex education based on research and literature related to the subject. Our aim was to discover the possible problems in sexual health promotion and to participate in developing an outline of a theme interview for interviewing school nurses. This study is part of a project started by Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland, to develop sexual health promotion e.g. in school health service.

The literature review showed that a large part of school nurses feel they lack competence in sexual health promotion and wish for further education on the topic. Since the majority of adolescents will not start their sex life until after finishing comprehensive school, the school health service in upper secondary schools and vocational colleges plays a key role in sexual health promotion and sex education for adolescents.

Since there is a lack of comprehensive studies on the subject matter, we decided to create a new questionnaire to gather more information on the topic. The outline of a theme interview was created in collaboration with other final project groups related to the larger project.

The outline is based on comprehensive literature reviews and it contains the objectives for sexual and reproductive health promotion set by The Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. In November 2008 the outline was tested and found efficient in practice. Interviews can offer new information on a field where only a few studies have been conducted before. The results may offer new topics for future studies and development.