Nurse-patient sexual contact in psychiatric hospitals

Sexual contacts between nurses and patients in psychiatric hospitals have n ot been investigated systematically. The aim of the present study was to de termine the frequency of nurse-patient sexual relationships and their promi nent characteristics on the one hand and the nurses' attitudes towards thes e contacts on the other. A questionnaire was mailed to 714 nurses employed at two psychiatric hospitals. Although 94% of the 279 respondents considere d sexual contact (defined as "physical contact between a patient and a nurs e, 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 su ch contacts with patients.