Touch: a healing therapy in palliative care
Location
Auditorium Pond Side
Start Date
26-2-2014 10:30 AM
Abstract
This poster is designed to explore and analyze the experiential process of healing touch, a complementary therapy. It involves exchange of energy in relieving patient’s pain in order to ease suffering, emotional distress and provide optimal comfort and support to them. The health care professionals realized that while providing pain and symptom relief measures, the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the patients should also be given prime importance. The purpose of highlighting this issue is to critically analyze the therapy so that it could be integrated as an evidence-based practice. This healing technique not only minimized patients’ intensity of chronic pain as evidence by their lowered pain scores but support and help them to meet their physiological, social, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs as evidenced by patients’ verbalization of having positive attitude towards life, increased motivation, strong nurse patient relationship and increased participation in activities of daily living. Based on the empirical outcome, healing touch should be considered as an adjunct therapy in relieving pain and anxiety. Moreover, this measure should be made an essential part of care and need to be prioritized over the routine aspect of care especially in a palliative care setting.
Keywords: Healing touch, Chronic pain, Anxiety, Palliative care
Touch: a healing therapy in palliative care
Auditorium Pond Side
This poster is designed to explore and analyze the experiential process of healing touch, a complementary therapy. It involves exchange of energy in relieving patient’s pain in order to ease suffering, emotional distress and provide optimal comfort and support to them. The health care professionals realized that while providing pain and symptom relief measures, the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of the patients should also be given prime importance. The purpose of highlighting this issue is to critically analyze the therapy so that it could be integrated as an evidence-based practice. This healing technique not only minimized patients’ intensity of chronic pain as evidence by their lowered pain scores but support and help them to meet their physiological, social, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs as evidenced by patients’ verbalization of having positive attitude towards life, increased motivation, strong nurse patient relationship and increased participation in activities of daily living. Based on the empirical outcome, healing touch should be considered as an adjunct therapy in relieving pain and anxiety. Moreover, this measure should be made an essential part of care and need to be prioritized over the routine aspect of care especially in a palliative care setting.
Keywords: Healing touch, Chronic pain, Anxiety, Palliative care