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Learning Objective #1: state elders’ perspectives related to having intimate nursing care provided by nursing assistants who are of a young age.

Learning Objective #2: identify generational issues related to meeting personal dignity needs of elders during intimate care activities.

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Nursing assistants are the group of healthcare workers identified as providing the majority of direct care for elderly residents of assisted living and nursing home facilities. Fiscal constraints associated with health care reform will necessitate a continued reliance on such unlicensed personnel in the future, in spite of the fact that larger numbers of residents are more seriously ill than in the past. A phenomenon often present in these settings is that, since nursing assistants’ work ranks low in status and wages, calls for no exceptional skill, and offers no advancement, a large majority of nursing assistants are often quite young. This qualitative study used a phenomenological frame work to explore elders’ lived experience of the practice of receiving intimate nursing care from teenagers and young adults who are employed as Certified Nursing Assistants in assisted living and nursing home settings. Data collection through audiotaped focus groups and individual interviews continued until saturation occurred. Guided by naturalistic inquiry, ten residents described what they thought and how they felt about being cared for “by kids.” Reflection on the theme clusters resulted in a synthesis of insight into a descriptive structure of the meaning of the lived experience within the context of personal dignity and interpersonal and intrapersonal interactions. These findings have heuristic value for registered nurses holding ultimate responsibility for the care of these elders in terms of enhancing and facilitating education of nursing assistants in providing intimate care to elders.