Compassionate Touch Research Articles

The Effect of Yakson Touch on Pain and Physiological Parameters of the Newborn

Background: The stressors faced by the newborn can directly affect the newborn’s sensory development, brain development and organization by causing pain in the newborn. Yakson touch, a traditional Korean cultural practice, is known to reduce the pain in the newborn. Aims: The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Yakson touch applied to the newborn on pain and physiological parameters during the heel prick procedure. Methods: The study was conducted using a randomized controlled trial design (experimental, control). The study sample consisted of 80 newborns (experimental group = 40, control group = 40), all born between 35-40 gestational weeks and considered suitable for clinical conditions. Yakson touch is a technique that involves warm, pressure less, slow, and compassionate touch, following a fixed fifteen-minute protocol. The Yakson touch protocol was initiated for the experimental group before the heel prick procedure. Research data were obtained using the Parent and Baby Information Form, Physiological Parameters Observation Form and Newborn Baby Pain Scale. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS V23 and the significance level was taken as p < .05. Results: There was no difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of neonatal oxygen saturation, heart rate, and pain score before, during, and after the procedure (p > .05). There was no difference in cry duration between the two groups before and after the heel prick procedure, but the newborns in the experimental group cried less during the heel prick procedure compared to the control group (p = .007). Conclusion: The newborns in the experimental group, who receives Yakson touch during the heel pricking procedure, had shorter crying times than those in the control group. Therefore, it is recommended to include Yakson touch in nursing interventions during this procedure.

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.

Compassionate communication levels of nursing students: Predictive role of empathic skills and nursing communication course.

This study aims to determine the compassionate communication levels of nursing students and the predictive roles of empathic skills and nursing communication courses. This descriptive study was conducted with 430 nursing students and data were analyzed using a descriptive information form, Compassionate Communication Scale (CCS), and EmpathicSkill Scale (ESS). A positive relationship was found between the students' ESS and CCS scores (r = .23 p = 0.001). Empathic skills (β = 0.43, p = 0.001), predicted compassionate communication (β = 0.23, p = 0.001), compassionate conversation (β = 0.43, p = 0.001),and compassionate touch (β = 0.18, p = 0.001). Skills of compassion and empathy positively affect each other; therefore, it is important to adopt strategies that strengthen the empathic skills of nursing students during academic education and to include empathy and compassion in the curriculum.

A doctor's compassionate touch.

A doctor's compassionate touch.

Yonder: Migrant workers, compassionate touch, puberty, and Happify.

Yonder: Migrant workers, compassionate touch, puberty, and Happify.

Teacher compassionate touch in a Japanese preschool

This paper examines the discursive, embodied, and sequential organization of preschool teachers’ compassionate touch in interaction: physically touching a child so as to soothe and relieve the child’s distress. Utilizing multimodal conversation analysis, episodes of compassionate touch were identified and transcribed from a corpus of 48 hours of audio-visual recordings in a Japanese preschool. The analysis focuses on such touch within situations of peer conflict and accidents during play. It shows how compassionate touch was used with verbal resources and communicative practices, examines their positioning within sequences of interaction, and discusses children’s responses. The findings attempt to further our understanding of affective touch in children’s sociality and preschool childcare.

Compassionate Touch® Delivered by Long-term Care Staff for Residents with Dementia: Preliminary Results

Limited evidence supports the use of touch or massage for people with dementia. Interventions incorporating a person-centered approach to touch delivered by staff may benefit residents with dementia and staff in long-term care settings. The Compassionate Touch® (CT) program provides protocol-based, skilled human touch and compassionate presence. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore experiences and perspectives of staff who provided the CT intervention to residents with dementia three times per week for three weeks. Five staff and five residents with dementia in memory care settings participated in the study. Staff were individually interviewed after the three-week intervention, and NVivo 11 software was used for thematic analysis. Although the findings of the present study are preliminary, staff who delivered the CT program perceived positive impacts on themselves and residents with dementia. Programs such as CT may benefit staff and residents with dementia by promoting positive social interactions and giving joy within staff-resident dyads, increasing staff self-efficacy in caring for residents with dementia and residents’ responsiveness and calmness, and meeting residents’ needs for human touch and affection. Further rigorous studies are needed to measure effectiveness of the CT program on psychosocial outcomes of residents and care-related outcomes of staff.

Feasibility of Training and Delivering Compassionate Touch in Long-Term Care

ABSTRACTObjectives: Limited evidence supports the use of therapeutic touch for people with dementia (PWD). Interventions incorporating a person-centered approach to touch delivered by staff may benefit PWD and staff in long-term care settings. The Compassionate Touch® (CT) program provides skilled human touch and a compassionate presence following a person-centered approach and touch protocol. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of training and delivering CT.Methods: An online survey was sent via email to 112 staff who attended the CT coach training. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyze closed-and open-ended questions of the survey.Results: Twenty-four staff members completed the survey and reported positive perspectives about the training, use of the program, and benefits for PWD and themselves. Five themes emerged, including (1) benefits for residents, (2) challenges in using CT, (3) when to use CT, (4) training staff, and (5) needed support.Conclusions: Preliminary findings from the present research show potential benefits of using the CT program for residents, challenges participants faced in using the program and training other staff, and support needed to overcome these challenges.Clinical Implications: Programs such as CT may benefit PWD and staff in residential care settings.

Medicine and Religion are Not-Two

This paper considers the relationship between religion, medicine and the secular by paying attention to the sensory dimensions of knowledge practices in shiatsu, a Japanese manual therapy. Strongly shaped by the secularist ethos of the postwar US occupation, shiatsu in Japan has been rationalized according to biomedical models. Yet a reaction to this development would see the emergence of “Zen Shiatsu”: a shiatsu style emphasizing meditation and compassionate touch as foundational acts of medical assessment, and one that would migrate successfully to American shores. Ethnographic engagements with contemporary North American practitioners of Zen Shiatsu illustrate how their sensory economies of knowledge enable expressions of subjectivity that trouble the visualistic and objectivist dimensions of biomedical knowledge that are crucial to maintaining the boundary between biomedicine and its others.

A History of Massage in Nurse Training School Curricula (1860-1945)

Guided by Florence Nightingale, massage nurse training instruction methods were duplicated in the U.S. nurse training curricula. In the 1880s to 1900s massage training and instruction was delivered by physicians, nurses, or masseurs for many disease conditions. In the 1930s to 1940s, influential nurse authors and educators began to recommend specialization in physiotherapy for nurses. Scientific and pharmacological solutions for symptoms of disease became popular, thus practicing basic nursing comfort measures using massage declined. To trace roots of massage in the medical literature, the inclusion of massage in U.S. nurse training school curricula, and examine the historical shift from massage as a basic nursing comfort measure to a specialization of physiotherapy. Primary text books by physicians, nurses, massage instructors; medical/nursing journals; nursing curriculum guidelines--archival collections of the Center for Historical Nursing Inquiry; Historical Collections at the University of Virginia Claude Moore Health Sciences Library; private historical collections; and secondary published books/ articles were used. Prior to increase in scientific care, use of analgesics, and specialization of physiotherapy departments, the nurse provided basic comfort measures that included massage. Historical research in the use of massage in nursing may help refocus attention on the healing of the mind/body and reinforce the value of compassionate touch and balance in nursing practice today.

Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) by Washington State Hospices

To assess the use of complementary and alternative medicine in hospice care in the state of Washington. Hospices offering inpatient and outpatient care in Washington State were surveyed by phone interview. Response rate was 100%. Results indicated that 86% of Washington State hospices offered complementary and alternative services to their patients, most frequently massage (87%), music therapy (74%), energy healing (65%), aromatherapy (45%), guided imagery (45%), compassionate touch (42%), acupuncture (32%), pet therapy (32%), meditation (29%), art therapy (22%), reflexology (19%), and hypnotherapy (16%). Most hospices relied on volunteers with or without small donations to offer such services. Complementary and alternative therapies are widely used by Washington State hospices but not covered under hospice benefits. Extensive use of these therapies seems to warrant the inclusion of complementary and alternative providers as part of hospice staff, and reimbursement schedules need to be integrated into hospice care.

The power of compassionate touch.

Victor M. Parachin, MDiv, is a minister, a counselor and author of numerous books, including Healing Grief in 2001. Victor is minister of First Christian Church in Jenks, Oklahoma.Figure

Compassionate Touch: Benefits and Effects in Long Term Care (videotape)

Compassionate Touch: Benefits and Effects in Long Term Care (videotape)

Video Reviews: Compassionate Touch: Benefits and Effects in Long-Term Care

Video Reviews: Compassionate Touch: Benefits and Effects in Long-Term Care