Promoting the Integration of Therapeutic Touch in Nursing Practice Essay

1. Describe the patient group in the study. English speaking adults with Dx of cancer expected to be on the unit the day following the intervention, whose medical conditions did not preclude their ability to comfortably receive TT or participate in the interview, and were able to give informed consent; 34 patient-participants completed the research process (16 women and 18 men), age range of 22 to 77 with an average age of 52 years 2. What was their health problem? Bone marrow transplant Patients. The focus of the study? Explore the experiences of nurses and patients on an inpatient oncology and bone marrow transplant unit when nurses had time preserved for exclusive offering of TT. 3. Who was providing the care? Two staff nurse-interventionists who were experienced and participated in TT education, and three nurse-interviewers who discussed the TT intervention with patient-participants the day following TT treatment. 4. What was the setting for the care? The study was conducted in an academic medical center on a 26 bed hematology/oncology in patient unit with bone marrow transplantation program. 5. What were the findings? 1) TT is a vehicle for comfort, caring, and presence that creates possibility and healing 2) TT invites a shift from disease-state focus to personhood focus that is freeing and reawakens the essence of nursing 3)TT is an intervention that illuminates the transformative power of nursing theory-research-practice. 6. What were the recommendations? Having a complementary nursing strategy, such as TT, that allows nurses an additional way to offering care that facilitates comfort, assists with anxiety reduction, and enhances sleep is of major significance. 7. How practical/useful is this information to a practicing nurse? I am not sure how practical TT is. First, you would have to have additional staff to allow for the time to educate seasoned nurses in TT and then to perform TT on the patients. You would also have to have the support of the administrative staff. However, I do believe that laying on of hands is an effective therapeutic tool. 8. What I wonder is†¦.. would there be a similar outcome in other specialty areas that patients have not had the opportunity to establish a trusting relationship with the nursing staff prior to TT.