Intimate care comprises physical touch that involves inspection of, and physical contact with body parts, which can cause embarrassment to the patient and the nurse. [1] It is further described as task-orientated touch to areas of the patient's body that might create feelings of discomfort, anxiety and fear or might be misinterpreted as having a sexual purpose. [2] Patients seek physical or psychological care at healthcare institutions. Nurses provide care that meets the needs of the patient, and these needs may require a nurse to be physically and psychologically close to a patient. This closeness could include exposure of private body parts, touching of the naked body and sharing of intimate information with a total stranger. When providing physical care, touch is necessary and an essential and intrinsic part of a caring profession, [3] as it facilitates communication between the nurse and the patient. The interactions between a nurse and a patient are classified as intimate because they cross the patient's physical and psychological private zones. [4] During intimate care, a nurse and a patient need to establish a relationship in a confined space, where a patient has to allow a stranger to access his/her body's most intimate parts and, in turn, the nurse has to see and touch a body that is not theirs. [5] Touching the patient's body may initiate feelings of discomfort, [3] because the care involves parts of the body that need to be touched. There is reluctance in using the concept 'intimate care' in the nursing profession. This is based on the assumption that establishing an intimate care relationship with a patient is a violation of the personal and professional ethical boundaries between nurse and patient. [6] However, in the execution of their duties, nursing students are expected to touch areas of a patient's body that are considered private and emotionally sensitive. Many nurses are young, inexperienced with regard to social maturity and responsibility, and may struggle to take on the professional responsibility of providing intimate care to diverse patients, who are strangers to them. [7] Professional intimate care responsibility is entrusted to students, and they are expected to excel at it. However, little is known about how nurses learn, rehearse and incorporate appropriate touch strategies, and there is no model for the use of intimate care/touch in a non-sexual context. [1,2] Nursing students also receive limited instruction in this regard from nursing education institutions (NEIs). [8] Young nurses are rudely awakened to the reality of intimate care work once they are placed in the clinical area. At the onset of training, they do not necessarily understand the degree to which nursing care includes intimate care and the discomfort they may experience in such situations. [7] To add to the complexity of this issue, South Africa (SA) is challenged with increased gender-based violence against women and children. [9] Within this context, men and women choose caring careers, such as nursing. The patriarch...

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OBJECTIVE: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic metabolic disorder that has a major impact on health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The economic burden of the disease, along with its complications, negatively impact the individual, family, and society of Indian diabetic patients. This study explored the perception of the diabetic HRQOL of South Indian type2diabetic patients. METHODS: This study was a cross-sectional descriptive quantitative study conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, South India. Using the simple random sampling technique, we collected data from 352 T2DM patients aged ≥ 30 years of age who were diagnosed for a minimum of one year. Data collection occurred from June to August 2017. Data were analysed using IBM SPSS, Version 22. RESULTS: Overall, 90% of patients with T2DM perceived poor HRQOL. The total and the domainspecific mean scores of HRQOL were high indicating poor HRQOL in energy mobility, diabetes control, anxiety and worry, social burden, and sexual functioning domains. Being female, increasing age, lower education levels, lower family income, and uncontrolled fasting blood glucose levels predicted poor HRQOL of patients with T2DM. CONCLUSIONS: T2DM impacted the HRQOL in all measured domains of participants. A patient-centred approach to diabetes management can be incorporated to improve or enhance the health-related quality of patients' lives. Improved HRQOL also may lead to fewer hospitalizations, and hence, reduce healthcare costs.

Background: Women who smoke whilst pregnant are increasing globally. Midwives are seen as frontline professionals for providing smoking cessation interventions to pregnant women. Yet, there is a dearth of studies on attitudes of these professionals to smoking cessation work in pregnancy. Aim: This paper reports on a study that explored midwives` experiences and attitudes toward a smoking cessation programme of a midwifery service in England. Method: This study utilised a phenomenographic methodology. A criterion purposive sampling approach was used, and 17 participants were recruited to take part in the study. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken for data collection, and a thematic analysis was used, based on Sjöström and Dahlgren`s approach. Results: Four superordinate themes emerged from the data analysis: reasons for smoking; attitudes toward smoking in pregnancy; attitudes toward the smoking cessation programme, and barriers to smoking cessation. Conclusion: Smoking cessation should not be considered in isolation from the lives of pregnant women. Midwives need ongoing training and support to enhance their skills, knowledge and confidence in smoking cessation work.

The role of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV prevention has generated hope for an AIDS-free generation but also interest in behavioural outcomes of people living with HIV (PLHIV). This is from the knowledge that the benefits of ART in terms of enhancing PLHIV health outcomes and preventing HIV transmission depend on PLHIV's behaviours including sexual risk, disclosure, treatment adherence and retention. The purpose of this study was to examine whether PLHIV in Nigeria who participate in support group activities have different behavioural outcomes than those who do not.A cross-sectional design was used to compare stigma, disclosure, sexual risk behaviors and ART adherence rates of PLHIV who participate in support group activities and those who do not. Respondents were adult PLHIV enrolled in ART from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2012. Study sites and respondents were selected using multistage probability sampling. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire from 1,676 respondents between February and May 2014. Data were analysed using STATA. Univariate analysis was carried out to generate descriptive statistics while Chi-square tests were used to examine if there was any association between participation in support group activities and PLHIV selected behavioral outcomes.PLHIV who participated in support group activities differed from those who did not in terms of HIV-related stigma (p =< 0.001), positive HIV status disclosure (p = 0.005), ART adherence (p = 0.021), and sexual risk behaviors (p = 0.045). PLHIV who participated in support group activities were more likely to have less internal HIV-related stigma, disclose their positive HIV status, adhere to ART and live less risky sexual lives. These findings suggest that PLHIV who participate in support group activities are more likely to adopt positive behaviors than those who do not.