[Affective touch and self esteem in the elderly].

The hospital is an environment which accomodates the elderly persons and in which these last have to make trainings at one time when they are not in full possession with all their physical, psychological and cognitive capacities. They can then live there humiliating situations which generate feelings of discomfort, embarrassment and shame. The presence of interveners not very warm, lacking compassion lack and impressed negative prejudices towards the elderly patients, is another factor which is added to lead them not to feel at ease, involving, inter alia, consequences a fall of their self-esteem. However the affective touch is a strategy which would have the potential to act on the personal value of the elderly patients and to thus improve their self-esteem. It is with a view to popularize the use of the affective touch in practice nurse that a study was carried out in order to check its effects on the self-esteem of the elderly patients. The results confirm that the emotional touch influences positively the self-esteem of the elderly patients. The authors of the study thus recommend the systematization of the affective touch in nursing practice.