Abstract

BLANCA GUTIERREZ, Joaquín Jesús et al. The intimacy in the hospital: The experience of the patients, their families and the nurses. Index Enferm [online]. 2008, vol.17, n.2, pp.106-110. ISSN 1699-5988.

Introduction. The maintenance of the intimacy inside the Hospital is sometimes forgotten for other more technical aspects. From the juridical point of view it is considered from three different levels: a public sphere, a private sphere and the strictly intimate sphere. Some authors nurses have identified several facets inside it: the physical intimacy, the psychic one, the sociocultural one and the related one to the information and the confidentiality. Methodology. Qualitative study of descriptive type. The methods to gather the information have been depth interviews and participant observation. Results. Four big central categories are established: meaning of the intimacy, the relation with the cohabitants in the Hospital, extrinsic factors that determine the experience of the intimacy and intrinsic factors. Discussion. Few original studies with phenomenological approach that treat the topic. There are studies that approach topics related to the intimacy in the Hospital as the human relations, the physical space, or the family’s implication in the care.

Keywords : Qualitative research; intimacy; nurse; patient; familiy.