title: Advanced practice nurse attitudes toward sex offender patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA. erash@mail.ucf.edu
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rash
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Winton
mesh_terms: 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