Advocacy for personhood: integration of African Christian rituals and intimate care on the touched human body

Abstract

Intimate care relates to essential nursing care nurses provide that requires touching the patient’s body. It is noted that the human body goes through many rituals from birth through all life stages. Rituals done on one’s body symbolize the need for acceptability in the family, community, and society. The purpose was to integrate African-Christian rituals into nursing care to improve the quality of care for the touched human body. Ubuntu paradigm was used to understand the rituals and nursing intimate care practices on the human body in an African context. African-Christian leaders were sampled using snowball sampling from three Southern Africa countries (Eswatini [former Swaziland], South Africa, and Zimbabwe), and nursing practitioners were purposively sampled from two selected hospitals in South Africa. Naïve sketches and semi-structured interviews were used to collect in-depth data. Rituals of the identity of the person through naming and initiation into family and community. The body is constantly touched during ritualization and provision of care. Advocating for personhood asserts that individuals needing physical or spiritual care should be treated with dignity and respect. As a human person embraces the physical and spiritual realm, integration of nursing and spiritual care is critical for healthy families and communities.