Nurses Caring for Clients With Mental Disorder in Surgical Setting

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Table of Contents

Problem statement
Problem analysis
Objectives
Solution
Theories
Feasibility of the solution
Community culture and resources
References

Problem statement

Despite increased need for therapeutic touch intervention in the field of nursing, many nurses have continued to develop negative attitude towards this practice. In addition, therapeutic touch is not practiced in nursing due to lack of sufficient training among members of nursing staff. Furthermore, myriad of nursing colleges lack appropriate curricula to incorporate therapeutic touch in their training. This has been aggravated by limited research in this area which makes nursing training and practice not to be holistic as may be expected. Besides, there are quite a number of nursing colleges that have not incorporated therapeutic touch in their training. This has largely been contributed by lack of commitment by nursing staff coupled with disruptive working environment.

Problem analysis

Most of the recent empirical researches are unanimous that a lot of people in both developed and developing countries have been keen on the available modalities for complementary healing such as therapeutic touch (Eisenberg et al., 1993). The general public has also expressed its lack of satisfaction in the medical models that are traditional in nature and also provide low quality health care. It is against this backdrop that most patients would like nurses and other professionals in health care to be well versed with knowledge on alternative and complementary medicine. They argue that this should go hand in hand with a holistic health (Fenton & Morris, 2003). Hence, therapeutic touch is one of the practices that will apparently fill the gap in providing holistic healthcare as per the expectations of clients. Again, this practice will be a mutual process that will assist both patients and nurses owing to the fact that nurses who practice therapeutic touch will be in a position to know their patients well especially through sensation process. This will definitely improve their understanding on appropriate treatment methods that are holistic as well. Therefore, it is important for all nursing colleges to incorporate therapeutic touch in their training curriculum.

Objectives

This research project will be driven by the following objectives as outlined in nursing research (Burns & Grove, 2009).

To investigate the importance of therapeutic touch practice among the nurses in their daily health care provision.
To explore barriers hindering the practice of therapeutic touch in nursing care.
To highlight the relative importance of therapeutic education among nurses.
To fully understand and appreciate the current level of knowledge on therapeutic touch among practicing nurses in order to assess the level of training needs.

This nursing and healthcare challenge can be addressed well by first of all, gathering sufficient data on the current situation and then devising appropriate strategies to address the challenge.

Solution

In order to address this problem, barriers that have hindered the practice of therapeutic touch need to be addressed as a way of encouraging nurses adopt the practice in their day to day provision of health care services. These barriers include lack of knowhow and negative attitude towards the practice among nurses. On the same note, nursing colleges have mammoth responsibility of ensuring that their graduates are fully trained and well informed on the practice of therapeutic touch. These colleges need to integrate therapeutic touch in their nursing curriculum to ensure that their students are taught the importance of this practice in health care provision. Moreover, all nursing professionals need to adopt this practice and see it as part and parcel of holistic nursing environment. Nurses should also change their attitude towards therapeutic touch and dump traditional point of view about the practice in order to improve the quality of health care they provide to their patients. They ought to see the practice as a mutual process that will help both the patients and nurses in their daily practice.

Theories

Several nursing theories have supported the view that therapeutic nursing is important in improving quality health care. For instance, human caring theory by Watson (2001) argues that inner healing is part of human caring which is also crucial in nursing practice. The other two theories are expanding consciousness theory (Newman, 1990) and human energy theory (Malinski, 2001). All these theories support the importance of therapeutic practice in nursing.

Feasibility of the solution

Although it may be challenging at the beginning to create therapeutic touch awareness in nursing colleges, stakeholders, practicing nurses and students, it is possible to do so if appropriate strategies are employed. Trainers in colleges need to understand and embrace the importance of this practice in holistic nursing and then they can easily pass it to their students who are potential nurses. Practicing nurses may be encouraged to attend seminars where they can gain more information about this practice.

Community culture and resources

Traditionally, it was believed that the practice of touch in therapy is a taboo and many health care providers would restrain from practicing it. However, with the current little knowledge available about importance of therapeutic touch, many people have dropped that traditional view. Thus many health care professionals are ready to adopt this practice in their endeavors to improve their quality of health care provision. In conclusion, quality of health care will improve if all the concerned stakeholders adopt and implement this policy.

References

Burns, N. & Grove, S. K. (2009). The practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (6th ed.).St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.

Eisenberg, D. M. et al. (1993).Unconventional medicine in the United States: Prevalence, costs and patterns of use. New England Journal of Medicine, 328(4), 246-252.

Fenton, M. V. & Morris, D. L. (2003). The integration of holistic nursing practices and complementary and alternative modalities into curricula of schools of nursing. Alternative Therapies in Health Medicine, 9(4), 62-7.

Malinski, V. M. (2001). Science of unitary human beings: Nursing theories and nursing practice, Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.

Newman, M. A. (1989). The spirit of nursing. Holistic Nursing Practice, 3(3), 1-6.

Watson, J. (2001). Jean Watson-Theory of Human Caring: Nursing theories and nursing practice, Philadelphia: F. A. Davis.

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