Perception of Touch Therapies Among Nurses Who Take Care of Cancer Patients

Kwon, So Hi; Kim, Keum Soon

Abstract

PURPOSE: The objectives of this study were to investigate perception of touch therapies among nurses who looking after cancer patients, ultimately to probe possibility of utilization of touch therapies as nursing interventions. METHOD: A descriptive study conducted from Dec. 2005 to Jan. 2006. 270 nurses taking care of cancer patients in 2 urban hospital were completed self-report questionnaire about general characteristics, utilization of touch therapies, willingness to adopt touch therapies in their practice, and perception of safety and effectiveness of touch therapies. RESULT: The participants were average 27.97 year-old, 60% of them had bachelor's degree, most of them were staff nurses(83.0%), and 34.6% of them were 3-5 years experienced in oncology nursing. Among 5 touch therapies(therapeutic touch, massage, reflexology, acupressure, and acupuncture), massage was the most positively perceived therapy not only the aspects of safety(67.1%) and effectiveness(65.9%), but also willingness to utilize in their practice(71.2%). There was no significant difference in willingness to utilize in their practice per age and years of working in oncology nursing. Older and more experienced groups perceived more positively to massage and reflexology.
CONCLUSION
Massage might be readily adopted as a nursing intervention in oncology nursing practice. Strategies to encourage the utilization of touch therapies as nursing intervention should be established.