Nurse-patient sexual contact in psychiatric hospitals

Sexual contacts between nurses and patients in psychiatric hospitals have not been investigated systematically. The aim of the present study was to determine the frequency of nurse-patient sexual relationships and their prominent characteristics on the one hand and the nurses' attitudes towards these contacts on the other. A questionnaire was mailed to 714 nurses employed at two psychiatric hospitals. Although 94% of the 279 respondents considered sexual contact (defined as "physical contact between a patient and a nurse, in which sexual arousal occurred in the nurse") to be inappropriate, 17% of the male and 11% of the female responding nurses reported having had such contacts with patients.