Pilot Study: Improving Patient Outcomes with Healing Touch.

Pilot Study: Improving Patient Outcomes with Healing Touch. Adv Perit Dial. 2017 Jan;33(2017):65-67 Authors: Hendricks K, Wallace KF Abstract Healing Touch therapies use a practitioner's intentional placement of hands to influence the patient's energy fields to promote self-healing. In the changing climate of health care, in which the patient experience increasingly drives reimbursements, it is vital to find unique and meaningful ways beyond traditional medical therapies to ensure positive patient experiences. To that end, our peritoneal dialysis clinic staff adopted Jean Watson's theoretical framework, by which patients are treated as whole unique individuals with a "multidimensional system of energy, with a consciousness that can be affected by another to promote well-being." In a rapidly growing urban clinic of more than 100 patients, our nurses identified the need to provide more ways to improve patient care.Staff were educated on ways to set positive intentions for patient contacts and to incorporate patient narratives into contact. Optional daily prayer was initiated, and patients were invited to attend a new support group for peritoneal dialysis patients and their families. In addition, a preliminary pilot provided Healing Touch treatments to interested patients. That pilot was associated with improvement in 4 of 5 measured categories. Fatigue and pain decreased by 46% and 68% respectively. Stress and anxiety fell by 49%, and ...
Source: Advances in Peritoneal Dialysis. Conference on Peritoneal Dialysis - Category: Urology & Nephrology Tags: Adv Perit Dial Source Type: research