Advanced practice nurse attitudes toward sex offender patients.
OBJECTIVE
To determine advanced practice nurses' (APNs') attitudes and behaviors toward patients in their practices who are registered sex offenders.


METHODS
An online survey of 300 APN members of a local APN organization asking respondents to identify the behavioral actions they were likely to agree or disagree with when faced with a scenario of realizing that a sex offender was a patient in their practice. Sixty-nine respondents submitted completed surveys.


CONCLUSIONS
There was an ambiguity of behavioral responses and no consensus among APNs on how to respond to the issue of a sex offender patient in a healthcare practice. There was also a lack of awareness of whether sex offenders were patients in their practice.


CONCLUSIONS
The modest number of respondents and their demographic homogeneity limit the ability to draw any conclusions or generalizations from this study. While awareness of a known sex offender in a practice is unlikely to alter direct patient care, it may have an impact on office policies and procedures and should be a consideration of all involved staff, including providers, ancillary team members, and administrative personnel.
Rash
Elizabeth
E
College of Nursing, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA. erash@mail.ucf.edu
Winton
Mark A
MA
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009720:Nurse Clinicians; D009722:Nurse Practitioners; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D016134:Organizational Policy; D020399:Practice Management; D012742:Sex Offenses; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States