Strategies for assessing the impact of Healing Touch in nursing care

Research
A prospective, multicenter, randomized study
By F Hentz, Aurelien Mulliez, Bénédicte Belgacem, C. Noirfalise, H. Barrier, J. Gorrand, C. Paniagua, B Mathé, Laurent Gerbaud
English

New care methods have emerged in the last few years. “Healing Touch” is relaxing and as such, helps prepare patients for medical procedures, the pain of which they may often feel anxious about. Because they foster confidence between the patient and the medical practitioner, such practices create better conditions for the medical care procedure to be performed. Although there is no doubt about its impact on the patient, the effect of Healing Touch has never been scientifically assessed, and the only available references are rather scarce. This is why we wanted to assess the impact of this method of care in a number of clinical situations, by way of a randomized clinical experiment. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the effectiveness of such care on the patient, especially regarding pain relief and reducing anxiety. To achieve this, authenticated assessment scales were used, such as the Visual Analog Scale for Pain scale and Spielberg’s Test Anxiety Inventory. A prospective multicenter randomized study was carried out to form a control group to be compared to the group treated with Healing Touch. Only willing patients who were prescribed Healing Touch were included in the experiment. Patients with cognitive problems—be they temporary (linked to a temporary clinical conditions) or not—or those suffering from disabilities preventing them from using assessment scales and questionnaires were excluded. The recruitment of a 784-patient panel was required in order to evaluate the eight situations in which the use of Healing Touch may be effective.

Key words

  • nursing care
  • pain
  • anxiety
  • healingtouch
  • nurse-patient care relationship
  • clinic research
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