Effects of Healing Touch on Postsurgical Adult Outpatients

Area of Science:

• Complementary and Alternative Medicine
• Surgical Nursing
• Evidence-Based Practice

Background:

• Postoperative pain and anxiety are common challenges for surgical outpatients.
• Effective pain and anxiety management are crucial for patient recovery and well-being.
• Exploring complementary therapies like Healing Touch (HT) can offer additional benefits.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of Healing Touch (HT) as a postoperative intervention for adult surgical outpatients.
• To assess the impact of HT on pain, anxiety, blood pressure, and pulse rate.
• To compare HT combined with traditional nursing care (TNC) against TNC alone.

Main Methods:

• Prospective pilot study utilizing a randomized control trial design.
• Participants were assigned to either a control group (TNC) or an intervention group (HT + TNC).
• Pain, anxiety, blood pressure, and pulse rate were measured pre- and post-treatment.

Main Results:

• Healing Touch (HT) was more effective than TNC in reducing anxiety (p = .029 vs. p = .22).
• HT demonstrated effectiveness in pain reduction (1.0 decrease, p < .001) compared to TNC (0.64 decrease, p = .02).
• No significant differences were observed in blood pressure or pulse rate between groups; a trend towards decreased narcotic use in the HT group was noted.

Conclusions:

• Healing Touch (HT) is an effective complementary intervention for reducing postoperative anxiety and pain in surgical outpatients.
• HT may help decrease the need for postoperative narcotics.
• Further research is recommended to confirm the benefits of HT in surgical recovery.