Caring Touch Research Articles

Caring touch as communication in intensive care nursing: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT Purpose This article describes intensive care nurses` experiences of using communicative caring touch as stroking the patient`s cheek or holding his hand. Our research question: “What do intensive care nurses communicate through caring touch?” Methods In this qualitative hermeneutically based study data from two intensive care units at Norwegian hospitals are analysed. Eight specialist nurses shared experiences through individual, semi-structured interviews. Results The main theme, Communicating safety and presence has four sub-themes: Amplified presence, Communicating security, trust and care, Creating and confirming relationships and Communicating openness to a deeper conversation. Communicative caring touch is offered from the nurse due to the patient`s needs. Caring touch communicates person-centred care, invites to relationship while respecting the patient’s dignity as a fellow human being. Caring touch conveys a human initiative in the highly technology environment. Conclusion Caring touch is the silent way to communicate care, hope, strength and humanity to critical sick patients. This article provides evidence for a common, but poorly described phenomenon in intensive care nursing.

"I am Here"-The Importance of Caring Touch in Intensive Care. A Qualitative Observation and Interview Study.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to illuminate the experience of caring touch in intensive care from the perspectives of patients, next-of-kin, and healthcare professionals. Design and Method: This study was explorative, and data were collected through qualitative observations (n = 9) with subsequent interviews (n = 27) at two general intensive care units. An inductive approach was embraced to be open-minded to the participants' experiences. Findings: The results are presented in one generic category-caring touch creates presence-which generated five subcategories: to touch and be touched with respect, touch as guidance and communication, touch causes suffering, touch creates compassion, and touch creates security. Conclusion: When the ability to communicate with words is lost, it is body language that reveals what a person is trying to express. Nurses create a way of being present with the patients by touching them, to communicate I am here for you. Caring touch is a tool to show compassion and respect and to protect the integrity of the lived body. The caring touch is soothing and comforting for the patient and next-of-kin and creates security. It also helps to awaken the motivation to get healthy, which is needed in an environment that is foreign.

The Nurses’ Perception of Expressive Touch: An Integrative Review

Introduction: Nurses use physical touch to interact with patients and address their needs. Human touch benefits social development, stress/anxiety reduction, and rapport building. Touch has been a part of nursing care for centuries, however nurses' perceptions of expressive touch are not easily ascertained from the literature. Literature currently offers one review on the perceptions of various medical professionals regarding touch of all kinds. No reviews specific to the nurses' perception of expressive touch exist. This integrative review provides a greater understanding of nurses' perceptions of expressive touch. Methods: Using Cooper's steps for integrative review, CINAHL, Medline, Academic Search Premier, and Complimentary Index were searched from 2000-2022; using search term expressive touch or caring touch or compassionate touch and nurse/nurses/nursing and perception or perspective. Results: Of 283 articles identified, 22 articles remained for full-text review after duplicate removal and application of inclusion/exclusion criteria. Five topics on nurses' perceptions of expressive touch were identified: Comfort with touch and job satisfaction, expressive touch as an essential part of nursing practice, expressive touch as a form of compassion and/or communication, the impact of expressive touch on the humanization of patients in the nurses' perception, and nurse discomfort with expressive touch. Conclusion: This integrative review provides findings that assist in understanding nurses' perceptions of expressive touch. Further research should examine the impact of gender, education, and experiences on nurses' perceptions as they use expressive touch in nursing practice.

Caring touch in intensive care nursing: a qualitative study

ABSTRACT Background Historically, caring touch was integrated in targeted nursing acts as shoulder massage, calming patients or to check vital parameters by touching the patient`s skin. However, this phenomenon in intensive care nursing still lacks convincing descriptions. Caring touch is an important part of being an intensive care nurse and confirming the patient`s dignity. To touch the patient`s skin is a common nursing act, but not much spoken of. Caring touch on the patient`s chin, holding hands or giving a hug has earlier been called e.g., non-procedural touch. Purpose Explore the meaning of caring touch as it appeared for Norwegian intensive care nurses. Methods Secondary analysis of data from qualitative, individual semi-structured interviews. Eight experienced intensive care nurses at public Norwegian non-university hospitals. Registered by the Norwegian Center for Research data NSD December 2014. ID 41164. Findings Data analysis revealed one main-theme: The speaking body, with four sub-themes 1) Eyes and facial expressions, 2) Patients emotional expressions, 3) Closeness and distance, 4) ICU nurses’ emotional responses. Conclusion Caring touch is a silent way of showing culturally competent care and establish or continue nurse-patient relationships in intensive care units. Caring touch contributes to heighten ethical dimensions of dignity in intensive care nursing.

Forms of Touch during Medical Encounters with an Advanced Heart Failure (AdHF) Doctor who Practices Relational Medicine

Within a participatory research project, we investigate how forms of touch we call caring touch are enacted in AdHF medical encounters. Through the theoretical lens of Relational Ontology (Raia, 2018), grounding multimodality in phenomenology, we identify various forms of caring touch. When occurring in conjunction with medical/diagnostic touch, especially in situations of a perceived patient’s vulnerability, caring touch facilitates passages from the person level to the organ, tissue, and gene levels and then back to the whole-person level in an uninterrupted movement, maintaining the person-person relation between doctor and patient. Gentle shepherding (Cekaite, 2010) is used to guide the patient body, and comforting touch (Goodwin & Cekaite, 2018) accompanies invitations to enter a space where death is part of living. We show the existential grounding power of caring touch, which constitutes forms of reciprocal sharing of existential experiences in caring-for-the-Other. All these forms of caring touch are employed by an AdHF doctor whose work centers on the practice of Relational Medicine (Raia and Deng, 2015b), in which the starting and returning point is the patient in his/her life. While providing a single case analysis, the research builds from a corpus of 500 hours of recorded medical encounters with 125 patients in high-tech medicine.

I Touched Her Belly and It Touched Her Heart

Of all the ways nurses provide care to pregnant women, sometimes a caring touch is the most needed.

Unitary Caring Science – Universals of Human Caring and Global Micro practices of Caritas

This manuscript offers a reflective pause to consider an overview of Unitary Caring Science as a philosophical-theoretical discipline-specific, professional nursing practice/praxis model for human caring nursing. It provides the background of the 10 Caritas Processes, considered universals of human caring phenomena and practices. The underlying starting point for unitary caring science is informed by an ‘Ethic of Belonging ‘- that is, we all belong to the infinite field and sacred circle of life itself. – belonging to the cosmic energy of universal Love. Thus our ‘Belonging’ becomes before our separate ‘Being’. So, in this foundational unitary starting point – ‘ethics comes before ontology’. With this philosophical-ethical foundation nursing practice moves from technical industrial forms of practice to Praxis, that is discipline specific, value guided, informed, knowledgeable, moral practice (praxis). This shift transcends technology and objective task- focused- physical care, to critiquing, repatterning practices from tasks and skills to Caring -Healing Arts and micro-practices that allow for human face- to- face, heart- to- heart – energetic human caring touch and transpersonal caring moments that unite.

Expressive Touch and the Attitude of Care: The Case for LGBT-Inclusive Intake in Aging Network Services

This article uses the work of Eva Feder Kittay and Maurice Merleau-Ponty to advocate for LGBT-inclusive intake questions across aging network services. I argue that care providers need to know their charge's sexual orientation and/or gender identity because caring touch is responsive, meaning that the care provider understands how her touch will be perceived and can change her actions accordingly. Information about a charge's sexual orientation and/or gender identity is one important way to furnish the care provider with the information she needs to calibrate effectively the expressive impact of her touch.

Caring touch as a bodily anchor for patients after sustaining a motor vehicle accident with minor or no physical injuries - a mixed methods study.

BackgroundPatients who sustain a motor vehicle accident may experience long-term distress, even if they are uninjured or only slightly injured. There is a risk of neglecting patients with minor or no physical injuries, which might impact future health problems. The aim of this study was to explore patients’ subjective experiences and perspectives on pain and other factors of importance after an early nursing intervention consisting of “caring touch” (tactile massage and healing touch) for patients subjected to a motor vehicle accident with minor or no physical injuries.MethodsA mixed method approach was used. The qualitative outcomes were themes derived from individual interviews. The quantitative outcomes were measured by visual analogue scale for pain (VAS, 0-100), sense of coherence (SOC), post-traumatic stress (IES-R) and health status (EQ-5D index and EQ-5D self-rated health). Forty-one patients of in total 124 eligible patients accepted the invitation to participate in the study. Twenty-seven patients completed follow-up after 6 months whereby they had received up to eight treatments with either tactile massage or healing touch.ResultsPatients reported that caring touch may assist in trauma recovery by functioning as a physical “anchor” on the patient’s way of suffering, facilitating the transition of patients from feeling as though their body is “turned off” to becoming “awake”. By caring touch the patients enjoyed a compassionate care and experience moments of pain alleviation. The VAS pain ratings significantly decreased both immediately after the caring touch treatment sessions and over the follow-up period. The median scores for VAS (p < 0.001) and IES-R (p 0.002) had decreased 6 months after the accident whereas the EQ-5D index had increased (p < 0.001). There were no statistically significant differences of the SOC or EQ-5D self-rated health scores over time.ConclusionsIn the care of patients suffering from a MVA with minor or no physical injuries, a caring touch intervention is associated with patients’ report of decreased pain and improved wellbeing up to 6 months after the accident.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Id: NCT02610205. Date 25 November 2015.

Caring touch--patients' experiences in an anthroposophic clinical context.

This study describes the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspective in an anthroposophic clinical context where caring touch is often used to promote health and alleviate suffering. The aim of the study was to explore and phenomenologically describe the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspectives. The study has been carried out with a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach in order to understand and describe human existential phenomena. Ten female patients were interviewed in an anthroposophic clinic in Sweden. The findings show how caring touch has multifaceted meanings and makes the patients' feel present and anchored in a meaningful context. The patients' feel that they are seen, accepted and confirmed. Furthermore, touch creates a caring space where the patients become receptive for care and has the power to alleviate the patients' suffering, as well as to frighten and cause or worsen the suffering. In order to take advantage of the caring potential, the patient needs to be invited to a respectful and sensitive form of touch. An interpersonal flexible space is necessary where the touch can be effective, and where a dynamic interplay can develop. In conclusion, caring touch is an opportunity for carers to support well-being and health. The carers need to approach their patients in both a sensitive and reflective way. A caring science perspective can serve as a help to further understand touch as a unique caring act.

Tactile massage or healing touch: Caring touch for patients in emergency care – A qualitative study

AimThis study aimed to explore the patient's lived experience of receiving caring touch after sustaining an acute illness or disease while being cared for in a short-term emergency ward. BackgroundAdmissions to short-term emergency ward for an acute illness or disease is often associated with increased stress, anxiety and pain. The caring touch in focus in this study is tactile massage and healing touch. A complementary treatment of tactile massage or healing touch was offered to patients to complement their routine nursing care. MethodsThis study has a qualitative interpretive design that explored two complementary approaches.Twenty-five patients (16 women and 9 men) admitted to the short-term emergency ward for acute conditions agreed to participate in the study and were individually interviewed. Data were collected from between January and May 2011. Data was analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutical method. ResultsThe patients’ lived experience indicated that caring touch resulted in an existential togetherness characterised by a nonverbal peacefulness, trust, consolation, safety, and a restoration of what it means to be a being human. However, some patients also expressed ambivalence towards caring touch. There also seemed to be a fine line between feelings of intimacy, sensuality, and sexuality, especially among the male patients. ConclusionIn the presence of an acute illness or disease, caring touch may provide trust and consolation for the patient's body and soul which may help to restore his or her integrity. The complexity of intimacy is an aspect that needs further study.

Complementary and alternative medicines, embodied subjectivity and experiences of healing

Despite a paucity of scientific evidence, complementary and alternative medicines have been found to give rise to feelings of control, empowerment, and agency. These healing experiences call for the development of analytical frameworks beyond biomedical ideas of scientific effect. This article is premised on a phenomenological understanding of embodied subjectivity as paving way for more nuanced understanding into experiences of healing. As such, this article contends that ill health transcends the biomedical body. Healing experiences are also entwined with the values and ideals that are normalized in the complementary health sphere. Discourses of health and wellness thus also play a role in the generation of healing experiences. I draw on qualitative research with clients and practitioners involved in complementary and alternative medicines in England. I will first introduce phenomenological ideals of the body, and the methods underlying the data that are drawn on. I will then turn to interviewee perspectives on the interconnectedness of the mind and the body, before outlining client experiences of alternative health practices. I argue that ideals, such as awareness, that are emphasized in the holistic health domain are important for the generation of healing experiences. Healing experiences also, however, emerge through the caring touch of trusted practitioners. This article will finally turn to the intersections between embodied experience and social inscription.

Maureen White, MBA, RN, NEA-BC

Maureen White, MBA, RN, NEA-BC

Tactile massage and healing touch –caring touch for patients in emergency care – a qualitative study

Abstract Aim This study aimed to explore the patient's lived experience of receiving caring touch after sustaining an acute illness or disease while being cared for in a short-term emergency ward. Background Admissions to short-term emergency ward for an acute illness or disease is often associated with increased stress, anxiety and pain. The caring touch in focus in this study is tactile massage and healing touch. A complementary treatment of tactile massage or healing touch was offered to patients to complement their routine nursing care. Methods This study has a qualitative interpretive design that explored two complementary approaches. Twenty-five patients (16 women and 9 men) admitted to the short-term emergency ward for acute conditions agreed to participate in the study and were individually interviewed. Data were collected from between January and May 2011. Data was analysed using a phenomenological-hermeneutical method. Results The patients’ lived experience indicated that caring touch resulted in an existential togetherness characterised by a nonverbal peacefulness, trust, consolation, safety, and a restoration of what it means to be a being human. However, some patients also expressed ambivalence towards caring touch. There also seemed to be a fine line between feelings of intimacy, sensuality, and sexuality, especially among the male patients. Conclusion In the presence of an acute illness or disease, caring touch may provide trust and consolation for the patient's body and soul which may help to restore his or her integrity. The complexity of intimacy is an aspect that needs further study.

Vård som berör — en studie av våldsamma möten inom psykiatrisk vård

Several studies indicate that threat and violence is present in health care settings, has problematic effects on nurses and other care providers and has increased over the last decade. The aim of the study reported here was to synthesize the results from three selected studies describing violent encounters within psychiatric care as experienced by carers and patients. The research is guided by a phenomenological and lifeworld theoretical approach.The analysis and synthesis of meaning are aimed at openness and meaning sensitivity through a reflective attitude characterised by the intent to bridle the process of understanding. The result may be conceptualized under the heading «caring touch» which imply encounters were carers are able to touch their patients at the same time as being touched, speaking both literally and figuratively. This caring touch takes place in a «naked» caring, and it is through «naked» caring and caring touch that carers are able to reach the patients and to give undisguised invitati...

Overcoming Leadership Challenges in LTC

Overcoming Leadership Challenges in LTC

The use of touch to enhance nursing care of older person in long-term mental health care facilities.

The self-care deficits experienced by older clients in long-term mental health settings, because of cognitive impairment, are likely to impact upon the clients' higher-order needs. The practice of nursing the elderly involves a lot of personal contact, during the delivery of fundamental physical care. While physiological and safety needs are crucial to clients in long-term settings, higher-order needs need also to be addressed. From the clients' perspective nurse's use of touch provides comfort, warmth and security, although there is a dearth of empirical evidence of these benefits. This paper explores the nurse's use of touch, the impact of touch and the experiences of touch on the older person in long-term settings. Because of the dearth of research in the use of touch with elderly clients in long-term care mental health facilities, a review of the literature was performed on the topic. This revealed that touch by nurses is frequently associated with routine tasks within nursing, and is less likely to be a caring touch intervention. Recommendations include further research on the topic and caution with widespread adoption of caring touch as an intervention.

Field Play: The Normalization of an Alternate Cognizance in Seriously Ill Children

Children who grow up with a life‐threatening illness live and face death in a way that is foreign to those of us who have reached adulthood in relative health. The experiences that form their identities create a range of knowledge, and processes for acquiring that knowledge, quite apart from the mainstream. In the pace of its acquisition, and the depth of its content, this knowledge is hard for the rest of us to comprehend. Indeed, the primary symptom of this alternate cognizance is that it sets these children apart from their families, peers, and greater communities. The child as a whole is marginalized in interpersonal relations by essentializing the child as the illness. The experience of the illness itself further isolates the child.Through firsthand observation, we find that the Hole in the Wall Gang summer camps provide a nearly unique environment for the normalization of this alternate cognizance. At camp, all those things that set them apart from the rest of the world mark them as normal members of a society. Other children share their physical qualities, have similar experiences and immediately understand their perspective on life. Small adjustments to social and physical environments have a lasting effect. A warm pool to swim in, a caring touch, an open smile—the children take the memory of these with them when they leave. They begin to understand that they are a desired part of a large and varied community. A new definition of normal is created and they are included.

Measures of salivary secretory immunoglobulin A and state anxiety after a nursing back rub

This study examined the effects of a 10-minute nursing back rub on salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and state anxiety in well older adult subjects. A control group ( n = 14) received no intervention, and an experimental group ( n = 18) received aslow stroke effleurage back rub. All subjects initially completed the state portion of the Spielberger State/Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and provided a timed, nonstimulated saliva sample. Control subjects lay positioned in bed for 10 minutes, and experimental subjects received the back rub. Both groups then provided a second saliva sample saliva sample and completed the STAI again. Anxiety scores decreased for both groups, but not significantly, and s-IgA concentation increased in the experimental group. This study provides rationale for further research into the holistic benefits of the nursing back rud and should encourage nurses to continue to provide caring touch interventions to patients.

Caring touch and anxiety in myocardial infarction patients in the intermediate cardiac care unit

The experience of myocardial infarction is a profoundly stressful event in a person's life. High anxiety levels have been observed in the myocardial infarction (MI) patient during the acute coronary care period and at the time of transfer from the coronary care unit to the intermediate cardiac care unit. The nurse is in a position to manipulate the patient and/or the environment to reduce or eliminate anxiety through the use of touch. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to determine the relationship between the type of touch and anxiety experienced by the myocardial infarction patient in the intermediate cardiac care unit. The subjects were male and female patients of any presenting age having sustained an acute myocardial infarction who were transferred from the coronary care unit to the intermediate cardiac care unit. The sample (N = 40) was systematically assigned to study groups. A comparative group received procedural touch while the experimental group received caring touch. State anxiety was measured both pre-touch and post-touch using the Spielberger (1970) State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Data on 33 patients were analyzed using the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results were in the direction of the hypothesis but not at the desired level of significance. Those experiencing the greatest benefits from caring touch were patients with pre-existing coronary artery disease and men under the age of 60 years. Those experiencing the least benefit from caring touch were those touched by both significant others and the investigator, and all women. Trends in the relevant variables supported the scientific rationale, as well as the hypothesis, and previous research.