Midwife and Nurse Students’ Perceptions of Body Privacy and Self Esteem. The Case of Turkey

Abstrac t: The article reports the results of a study conducted to examine midwifery and nursing students’ perceptions of body intimacy and the factors affecting their perceptions. This was a cross-sectional study, with 389 midwifery and nursing students at a public university volunteering to participate in the study. Data were collected using a “Personal Information Form”, the “Body Confidentiality Scale for Obstetrics and Gynecology” and the “Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale”. The participants had a mean age of 20.89 ± 1.86 years. The mean score they gave to the question whether they paid attention to privacy was 8.21 ±1.88. The mean Rosenberg self-esteem score was 29.44 ± 4.83 (minimum = 10, maximum = 40). The mean overall privacy score was 36.10 ± 6.84 (min = 9, max = 45), rights and privacy was 20.80 ± 3.71 (min = 5, max = 25), ethics and privacy was 20.45 ± 3.67 (min = 5, max = 25), and clinical privacy was 75.22 ± 12.33 (min = 18, max = 90). According to the results, obstetrics and nursing students, who would later intervene in women’s health, had higher than average self-esteem and perception of privacy. Nevertheless, the establishment of the concept of “privacy” is an issue that should be addressed and reinforced in the training of obstetrics and nursing students who will provide services in such a sensitive field as gynecology and obstetrics.