News Release

Healthcare providers who discuss intimate piercings earn patients' trust

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Wiley

Lubbock, TX – April 3, 2008 – Patients with genital and nipple piercings, also known as “intimate piercings,” are best served by healthcare providers who initiate positive discussions about them, according to a new article in the journal Nursing for Women’s Health.

Yet, too often, such discussions do not occur, even when treating infections and other conditions related to the piercings, due to healthcare providers’ uneasiness over this increasingly common form of body art. An estimated 30 to 50% of youth ages 18 to 23 have piercings in places other than in their ear lobes, so it is highly likely that healthcare will encounter such piercings in their patients.

An article by Cathy Young, DNSc, APRN, BC, Associate Professor at Texas Tech University’s School of Nursing and Myrna L. Armstrong, EdD, RN, FAAN, Professor at Texas Tech University’s School of Nursing offers a comprehensive, practical overview of the clinical issues healthcare providers are likely to encounter related to intimate piercings. Issues range from why individuals seek and obtain such piercings to which medical procedures require such piercings to have been removed.

“Our goal is to help nurses be better informed about intimate piercings, so that they can provide optimal care to patients with piercings,” the authors note. “When it’s clear that we’re knowledgeable and interested in a patient’s piercings, we’ll earn her trust.”

The article, therefore, encourages healthcare providers to seek out opportunities to learn more about patients with intimate piercings.

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This study is published in the April/May 2008 issue of Nursing for Women’s Health. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact professionalnews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.

Cathy Young, DNSc, APRN, BC, is Associate Professor at Texas Tech University’s School of Nursing and can be reached for questions at cathy.young@ttuhsc.edu.

Nursing for Women's Health (formerly AWHONN Lifelines) publishes the most recent and compelling health care information on women's health, newborn care and professional nursing issues. As a refereed, clinical practice journal, it provides professionals involved in providing optimum nursing care for women and their newborns with health care trends and everyday issues in a concise, practical, and easy-to-read format.

Wiley-Blackwell was formed in February 2007 as a result of the acquisition of Blackwell Publishing Ltd. by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and its merger with Wiley’s Scientific, Technical, and Medical business. Together, the companies have created a global publishing business with deep strength in every major academic and professional field. Wiley-Blackwell publishes approximately 1,400 scholarly peer-reviewed journals and an extensive collection of books with global appeal. For more information on Wiley-Blackwell, please visit www.blackwellpublishing.com or http://interscience.wiley.com.


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