Abstract

The beginning of the 20th century saw the first attempts to educate nurses about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United Kingdom. Throughout the century, numerous individuals and organisations campaigned for improved STI awareness education for nurses. Education initiatives gradually moved from the more generic nurse training programmes to the specialist courses for genitourinary medicine (GUM) nurses. Even so, it wasn’t until the 1970s that these specialist courses were successfully implemented and sustained. Following a detailed review of nursing education and STIs over the past century, this paper speculates why programmes of STI education have never been sustained for the general nursing workforce. It then considers possible developments for future education agendas that will ultimately enable nurses to contribute more readily to the challenges that national sexual health and nursing strategies currently propose.