Therapeutic Touch : Its Effectiveness On Surgical Incision Site Pain Es

Therapeutic Touch Its Effectiveness On Surgical scratching Site PainINTRODUCTION     Therapeutic breath has been shown to decrease patients anxiety levels andincrease their pain tolerance levels when other more mainstream therapies havenot been tout ensemble effective. "Therapeutic touch is a process by which energyis transmitted from one person to another for the purpose of potentiating thehealing process of one who is chastisement or injured." (Heidt, 1981 Krieger, 1979Lionberger, 1985 Randolph, 1984 Kramer, 1990). In my capacity as a nursingstudent on a medical- surgical unit, I have noticed an increase in painmedication requests among patients with incision site pain and a minimal use ofalternative therapies for this pain management. With the use of therapeutictouch nurses can reanimate a closeness with patients and also have a direct effecton their pain level. Therefore the purpose of this study entrust be to fancyif therapeutic touch is an e ffective hindrance for patients experiencingsurgical incision site pain within the first forty-eight hours afterward surgery.PROBLEM STATEMENT     The interview posed for study is "Is therapeutic touch an effectiveintervention for decreasing a patients surgical site pain within the firstforty-eight hours after surgery?". The independent variable is therapeutictouch. The dependant variable is decreasing surgical site pain. The populationto be studied will be patients on a thirty bed medical-surgical floor of a LakeCharles hospital. Fifty surgical patients will be studied over a four weekperiod. The patients will be randomly selected to avoid any bias by theresearcher.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM     "... therapeutic touch is a nursing intervention that has the potentialfor eliciting a state of physiological relaxation in patients and for decreasingpatients anxiety" (Heidt, 1991). The use of therapeutic touch is very importantt o the nursing community. The need for immediate intervention in acute orchronic pain could be handled at the bedside with no need to await a doctorsorder for pharmacological intervention. Anxiety could be lessened to letpatients rest more comfortably in the stressful hospital environment. Alsoteaching could be enhanced in the less zealous and more pain free client.... ...al Nursing, 31, (2),19-22.     Keller, E., MSN,RN-C, Bzdek, V.M., PhD, RN, (1986). Effects oftherapeutic touch on tension headache pain. Nursing Research, 35, (2), 101-106.     Kramer, N.A., MSN, RN, (1990). Comparison of therapeutic touch andcasual touch in stress reduction of hospitalized children. Pediatric Nursing, 16,(5), 483-485.     Mathews, K.M., RN, MN, SCM, (1991). Mothers satisfaction with theirneonates breast feeding behaviors. Journal of Gynecological and NeonatalNursing, 20, (1), 48-55.     Polit, D.F., PhD, Hungler, B.P. , RN,PhD, (1993). Essentials of nursingresearch methods,appraisal, and utilization (3rd ed.). Philadelphia J.B.Lippincott company.     Publication manual of the american psychological association (6th ed.).(1995).Washington D.C. American Psychological Association.     Quinn, J.F., RN, PhD, FAAN, Strelkauskas, A.J., PhD, (1993).Psychoimmunologic effects of therapeutic touch on practitioners and recentlybereaved recipients A pilot study. Advances in Nursing Science, 15, (4), 13-26.