Safeguarding professional intimate care and touch in Nursing Education: humanistic care in a technological era

Abstract

Facilitating intimate care and touch in the digital age advocates for quality humanistic care that is culturally, socially and religiously acceptable. The chapter attempts to create awareness of professional intimate care and touch on nursing education and practice to incorporate technology into humanistic care. The Participatory Action Research (PAR) process was used to allow for active participation in intimate care and touch activities to create new knowledge into humanistic intimate care practice. Symbolic interactionism’s theoretical framework complemented the understanding of attitudes, motives, behaviors, and how individuals interpret experiences and events. Naïve sketches collected initial data to establish their diversity and understanding of intimate care. After that, facilitated diversity in intimate care and touch discussion sessions were conducted, humanistic intimate care and touch simulation sessions, drawing from intimate care and touch experiences, and post-interviews were conducted to narrate the drawing. These activities created a visual and multimodal experience for nursing students. Knowing one’s socio-cultural beliefs and learning others’ identities creates a sense of belonging and acceptance. When nursing students understand who they are (as individuals, collectively), it makes it easier to acknowledge the diverse patients requiring intimate care and touch. Thus, nursing students’ preparedness in intimate care and touch is critical to allow them to practice in a safe space before being exposed to clinical placement.