Touching by skilled nurses in elderly nursing care

The frequency of touching in nursing care situations increases with patients who are in poor condition. Patients in long-term care often require help from nurses in all their daily activities. Touching is also an important form of communication in situations where the individual is no longer capable of reciprocal verbal communication. In this study, 10 nursing care situations were video recorded in a long-term care institution. The patients needed much help and had problems with verbal communication. Data analysis was inspired by Ricoeur's philosophy (1976) and involved three steps: naive understanding, structural analysis and comprehensive understanding. The findings show that each nurse-patient pair had its own distinct patterns of interaction that had taken shape over the years. Some nurses stood very close to their patients and frequently hugged, patted and stroked them; others remained at a greater physical distance and did not touch their patients more than was necessary to perform their tasks. In spite of their different patterns, all the nurses were highly competent and skilful in their jobs.