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Question: TMA01 – mark 85
Why is contact with or sight of a person’s body often a difficult issue in care relationships? What strategies can carers use to manage intimate care?
Answer: Intimate care is something that adults would normally do for themselves and helping someone bathe, go to the toilet and lift them in and out of a bed or chair can feel awkward. The fact that it is not something that can be commercialised, like laundry or meal making, means physical contact and seeing someone naked is necessary in care work.
As a society we have ‘rules’ for touch-behaviour. Certain people are allowed to touch us in certain places and any deviation from this makes us uncomfortable. Touch is linked foremost to sexuality but can also be connected with hierarchy - superiors may touch inferiors but not vice versa. This is added to by the imbalance of power present in a care relationship. Gender is also recognisable here as women tend to be more tactile than men and this is said to be partly due to their lower status in society (Henley, Reader, p274) and their upbringin...(short extract)
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- Subject: Nursing
- Course: K100
- Level: Degree
- Year: 1st
- Mark: 85%
- Words: 985
- Date submitted: January 13, 2009
- Date written: January, 2003
- References: Yes
- Document type: Essay*
- Essay ID: 113
