Critical review of how nurses research massage therapy: are they using the best methods?

Complementary therapies comprise only a fraction of nursing care, yet it is interesting that their use is being considered by an ever-increasing number of nurses. Within the Rhondda NHS Trust, holistic massage therapy is offered to patients both in hospital and in the community, nurses and occupational therapists successfully combining their massage skills with everyday patient care. During the process of devising a research protocol for implementation within the Trust, certain questions began to emerge to which there were no answers. The attempt to answer them is the origin of this paper, which explores some commonly experienced difficulties with reference to the literature and puts forward merits of adapting current methodology to investigate the benefits of massage therapy.