title: Exploring sensitive boundaries in nursing education: attitudes of undergraduate student nurses providing intimate care to patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nursing students often feel challenged and intimidated to provide intimate care to patients in the health care setting. Student nurses in particular are faced with social, professional, academic and peer expectations and experience high levels of stress when providing this intimate care.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Explore student nurses attitudes to providing intimate care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Year two and year three students of a three year undergraduate nursing programme completed a descriptive Nursing Students Intimate Care (NSIC) survey with open ended questions. This study discusses student responses to the question: Did you feel it was appropriate for a nurse to provide intimate care to a patient of the opposite sex?
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three major themes were identified: societal and self-determined role expectations, comfort and discomfort providing intimate care, and age and gender of the carer and recipient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Student nurses face numerous challenges when having to provide intimate care to patients. These challenges are influenced by the age, gender, levels of comfort of the nurse and the patient and is related to the nature of intimate care being provided. Student nurses will benefit from pre-clinical simulated training experiences in providing intimate care. This training needs to specifically consider being sensitive to the needs of the patient, maintaining patient dignity, negotiating, accommodating and implementing plan of care while being competent and professional in their approach to providing intimate care.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, Grafton, Auckland, New Zealand. m.crossan@auckland.ac.nz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Crossan
authors.forename: T K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Mathew
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000523:psychology*; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*