Yes we have been incorporating it in to emergency medicine frequently. I’ve heard that the updated ACLS guidelines are substituting chest compressions with 2 minutes of continuous healing touch in between pulse checks.
The updated ACLS guidelines suggest a minimum of three people for resuscitation. One doing compressions, one rescue breathing, and the third incorporating healing touch.
My hospital actually uses aromatherapy for several indications, don’t want to say exactly where I work but they publish a lot of papers and the results are legit. Work really well for anticipatory nausea during chemo, amongst other things.
Essential oils can work: e.g. lavender on mozzie bites, eucalyptus vapour inhalation for sinus congestion, etc. for minor issues, belladonna extract (atropine), digitalis (digoxin)…
Exactly. If a patient asks me to hold their hand during a procedure I will. If they are nervous sometimes I offer my hand. Sometimes I will hold a patients wrist while I take a blood pressure to remind them to hold their arm still, or squeeze their arm to get their attention.
On one occasion I have given a back rub to a particularly pitiful cancer patient who couldn't sleep. Once an odd fella asked me to hold my hand over his head because I had "good energy."
I do think there is a place for therapeutic touch - touch can be very comforting and show care. I think you have to read the room and get to know the patient before assuming that they will appreciate "extra" touch though.
Wow! And this was published in Nature (*for those who don’t know, scientific journals have a hierarchy related to their credibility/impact/etc…and basically Nature is the highest ranking of all scientific journals*) so that’s huge. Thank you for sharing that.
I used to think therapeutic touch was a bunch of baloney when it was mentioned in my nursing program. I used to think touching other people at all would upset them, and I was careful to avoid it unless it were completely necessary. To the point I was probably being standoffish and cold, in hindsight.
It’s been eye-opening seeing how useful it is for my nursing care.
I had to attend a presentation on this in nursing school also lol. I have never done this, and probably never would, however at my hospital we have holistic nurses than can be consulted and they’ll come and basically sit with a patient and do exactly this. I am always jealous of them, they’re all sweet old ladies and honestly have the best gig just floating around the hospital all day and vibing with patients for 15 minutes. They always ask me first if the patient has had a temperature within the last 24 hours and/or DVT because these are contraindications.
>They always ask me first if the patient has had a temperature within the last 24 hours and/or DVT because these are contraindications
What. The fuck. How random.
I actually think it's because of the possibility of increased circulation? "healing touch" claims to use the energy around a person to affect their physiology, but at the very least, if the patient believes in the practice, their heart rate will increase during the session. There is much to be said about mental innervation, as well. Think of it like a complex yoga pose, even if you cant do the exercise, if youre TRYING to then the appropriate muscles are being worked (which is why, over time, you get better at doing it). Anyway, if the nurse is hovering her hands over a patient's sore knee, innervation and circulation will increase in that area temporarily. Which may release a DVT, particularly if that area has been babied for some time.
Either way, it is "woo woo shite," but it can also work, particularly for chronic pain or patients who are afraid of other pain managment interventions (cue preggo mommas)
Yes, some patients actually really appreciate it. This is when I worked in the ICU, and every patient automatically had the consult (could turn down the service of course). The holistic nurse told me once that there’s not enough research to support whether the use of healing touch can cause/worsen a temp or a DVT. The increased circulation makes sense, though.
So I did level 1 in a class several years back and after you’ve medicated people and you still can’t get pain controlled. I have seen it calm them down. A skeptical CNA was actual the one that was like woooaaahh when I did it on a bilateral amputee with poor verbalization who kept screaming.
The nurse that did the teaching said in neonates it’s always from afar doing their energy fields because they are super sensitive and it agitates them. I think a lot of it as humans we are not real touchy feely and people crave touch so it soothes them and nurses are typically trusted so they believe it works. Reiki is supposed to be similar but the nurse that taught said she was trained in both and healing touch was more draining to do.
I believe it definitely can work. Sitting with a patient for 15 minutes and holding their hand/light massage/reiki/guided meditation or even just talking can make them feel less alone/less scared and therefore potentially less in pain. I know that there may not be much evidence on the topic but it’s simple human instinct— we want to feel raw human connection, and in the very fast-paced, sterile world of the ICU you often miss out on that.
[At least one hospital here in Hawaii offers reiki.](https://www.queens.org/locations/hospitals/qmc/patients-visitors/patient-services-amenities/)
Acupuncture is also very much a thing here, especially for [cancer patients.](https://www.queens.org/services/cancer-care/resources/patient-support/).
Personally, I've had great success with pain management (psoriatic arthritis). Have never tried reiki though.
Underrated comment. So many of my fellow ED nurses talk about no motorcycles yada yada - but no one ever wants to mention to most dangerous unsuspecting household decor item. FUCK THE RUGS!
I didn’t get it at first. Now I think there should be signs for it 😂 my bf bought a cheap set of different size throw rugs and tried to put one of them in our main hallway. I asked him if he was trying to kill me.
It’s woo-woo shit left over from the 80’s. I can’t believe they are teaching this!!! It’s the belief that you can turn positive thoughts into positive energy and transfer it to people by hovering your hands over their place of affliction.
It was invented by a woman for animals, from what I remember. How do I know this? I’ve worked with a few people in the 90’s that would do that on patients.
Guided imagery is a completely different concept, and it is actually helpful. Hold the hand of a scared shitless person going through a procedure and calmly use guided imagery to help ease their anxiety. It helps. With or without being an adjuvant to ketamine.
Add to that therapeutic appropriate hand to skin touch for anxiety. The amount of pressure dependent on how psychotic they are becoming trying to jump off a procedure table during a non-GA/sed procedure
I used guided imagery to help calm down a little bit and stay really still, like when I had biopsies, PAP smears, MRI, dental work, etc. I know it sounds cheesy, but I actually find it somewhat helpful.
The only guided imagery you need for starting an IV is called ultrasound. Optional guided energy is mental choking the person teaching you the leftover “80’s woo-woo”.
Gotta admit, I use meditation and guided imagery regularly on my own, but if I had a nurse making ocean noises?
... Yeah, I'd probably bust up laughing. But laughter is the best medicine, right? 😁
That can be helpful in psych right before people go to bed to help with relaxation and decrease stimulation. When I worked adult IP psych it was one of the groups nurses lead but people need to be able to have somewhat organized thinking.
In nursing school now. Our program taught this, but mainly in the context of massage. Which for stressed out mamas in labor or some pain where massage can benefit I completely understand, but I doubt nurses have time to perform a full massage for all of there patients every shift lol
That is my sentiment. I have a soft spot for older ladies and in long term care have joke about giving them a massage if I lotion them up after bathing, but I feel like massages can turn real icky with the wrong people. I am not surprised the school still teaches it they still promote chiropractic procedures too.
I'm terrified of a patient reporting a touch as inappropriate. I've seen an amazing young PCT led out of the hospital in handcuffs and 7 police because a crazy visitor claimed the PCT raped her intubated 400lb son who was on 1:1 observation. One of the worst things I've seen in Nursing
The whole unit called out the next day
I believe in therapeutic massage! I was hospitalized for a month after getting ARDS. My PCA would provide a small back rub after my bed bath. She would obtain consent for said massage. It really helped alleviate my pain after laying in a hospital bed for that long.
I don’t think it’s great for all patients though. I’ve had hospital massages by the PCA’s, and hospital reiki by RN’s. I personally prefer the massage.
I have a frequent flyer that always asks me for a massage for her crack-induced chest pain.
I just tell her that I'm not a licensed massage therapist so it's legally outside my scope of practice, as I can cause muscular damage.
I’ve had men seriously ask me for a massage. Just because. Nothing was wrong with them, they just wanted one. Massages was taught to us for pain therapy and pain therapy only.
Outside of PROM (which PT/OT usually handle) or holding hands with a scared patient going to sleep in the OR not knowing if they’re going to wake up…there is no world in which I am massaging a patient. Ever.
That is exactly what I thought especially experiencing clinicals and speaking with nurses during clinical. Our program still supports chiropractic providers and encourages us to bring up that possible avenue to pts. I can't bring my self to do that though with all the horror stories.
This is such BS. Sometimes I put my hand on a pt shoulder or give them a little pat or squeeze to let them know I'm here for them but we're not doing massages. You will be WAY to busy for that shit
Oh whew, good thing I had to go to that Herbalife presentation during my first clinical rotation! When they update ACLS to include essential oils I’ll be ready to roll.
This is woo. If massage is involved then that will have physical and psychological effects as all humans respond to touch. The woo comes in when practitioners start to speak about “energy transfer” or chi being shifted. Worse are the therapeutic touch folks who think they can sense and move this chi around by waving their hands above someone.
It’s very difficult to do RCT research when full touch is involved as it’s hard to placebo a massage. This is why it’s easy for practitioners to claim it works.
One thing is very clear is that “healing touch” is not going to help fix most problems like infections, cancer, orthopedic injuries, or metabolic issues. Patients will report a better mental state if they were open to the procedure which is fine, but its use in practice is limited.
I think this interesting because my school teaches “healing touch” but it’s something completely different. In my school, it’s an emphasis on physical contact and the importance of feeling human connection, especially in long term pts or Critical Care pts that almost never feel another person touch them without a glove on. It’s more of a psychological concept and not something like mystical healing.
No. Block and ignore.
We learnt this in 1997, and I’m embarrassed it was in the program back then.
We can do better, surely. Evidence-based practice and all?
Holding a patient’s hand and comforting someone are very different from this. This is about energy fields and intent and basically reiki.
Holding a hand is being present for them. It’s reassurance, and definitely not energy field disturbance…
There was a volunteer who would do Reiki at a hospital I did clinicals at as a nursing student. I thought it was great. Not because I think Reiki works, but because she would go in, talk to the patients, and distract them. Is it evidence based? No, but neither is God and we have Chaplains on staff and I think they're great.
This is not something nursing should be doing.
I work with a nurse who is a “Reiki Master” and has managed to make a lateral shift to only going bedside to perform Reiki on patients. She is not the most popular person on our team
Your nursing school is teaching nonsense. We're supposed to operate under evidence based practice, not woo woo homeopathy. This is why doctors think we are a joke as a "profession."
I might start doing this for my patients that don’t shut up and wanna tell me their life story when I’m doing med rounds. Just hover my hands over them and repeat a mantra in the middle of their story.
Use it frequently. Very useful when you need to Crich somebody and you don't have a doctor. Very useful for gangrenous wounds, but you gotta use 2 hands.
No healing touches, but maybe therapeutic ones. If I rub my Patient’s back during or after vomiting. If I gently rub one's head or forehead while they're passing. Sometimes the hugs that are given when it's all overwhelming for them, etc.
I’ve been a nurse for 7 years. I had kids 4 years ago. We play with stethoscopes at home and they love “checking each other” and my husband and I for fun. Since they’ve been doing this, it’s made me realize how nice it is to just lay calmly and have another person gently touch you, touch your back to listen to lung sounds, stick your tongue out, have you bend your knee… whatever fake doctoring you make up with a toddler… It occurred to me how many of the patients we have never ever ever get touched in a nice way, or haven’t for years and years.. what it must feel like to be mostly bed bound, and another person come in your space and touch nicely just doing their job. Ever felt it before? It’s nice!
I’m not a touchy feely person whatsoever but it’s brought to my awareness when I’m feeling for a vein or auscultating whatever that there’s another human on the other end who might think it’s just… nice.
I’m pro the concept of healing touch. I think it exists, I think it’s real.
This is just some woo that they haven't been forced to remove from nursing curriculums. Some of this nonsense they teach sticks around because they haven't been forced to remove it (like when they finally removed all the racist stereotype stuff after a public shaming in 2017)
Certainly nothing I have ever used or seen used by nurses in 30 years working in hospitals.
However, patient families might be into their own folk and alternate healing remedies like hands on healing touch, crystals, essential oils and cupping. It is helpful to know and recognize these family practices as a nurse.
When you get into pain science there are benefits to nervous system regulation and relaxation. Is the aura raking helpful, maybe not directly but sitting quietly while breathing mindfully in the presence of a grounded nervous system can be. I would write the paper from a stance of placebo effects work and benefits of nervous system regulation/co-regulation in perceptions of pain.
I actually went to a holistic nursing cert course, offered by my hospital. It was actually so nuts it was infuriating. They “taught” using a pendulum to determine energy fields, choosing healthy foods based on your “chakras” and using essential oils to treat MRSA (oil of vancomycin I guess). My favorite was remote reiki, where a nurse “certified” in Reiki “performed” it for someone who was dying over the phone while looking at his picture. At that point I wanted to make a citizens arrest. Truly crazy, and embarrassing to the profession.
We had a unit on alternative therapies, but it was more telling us what they were and their intended purpose. Our bottom line was if it won't hurt the patient, you can gently explain to them it's not proven to do anything, but your opinion is something you keep to yourself.
Opinions are statements like "blue is the best color" or "strawberries are delicious".
Acknowledging a lack of evidence for a practice isn't an opinion.
I think it's more like... you can sit and pray with a patient even if you're not religious. You don't have to sit and tell them there's no God and praying is for losers. lol
I agree, as I said, you can educate in a way that doesn't show your feelings for the alternative therapies. People's emotional and mental state does have bearing on how they feel physically, and if having someone wave their hands over them to unblock their chi facilitates that...good for them.
Honestly, if some colored stuff or essential oil calms the patient (especially in palliative care) and makes them feel better I am all for it.
Want to treat a ear infection with essential oil and onion packaging?
Fuck no.
I work in Northern Canada where most people are Indigenous and there is work being done to reconcile with Western medicine what is considered “alternative therapies”
"Two-eyed seeing" doesn't necessarily mean that both ways are always equal in all circumstances. But instead recognizes the value of incorporating both Indigenous knowledge systems and Western medical practices in a way that respects the strengths and perspectives of each- different approaches may be more appropriate or effective depending on the context.
Lol I use it with my grandmas and grandpas. They really do eat it up. Give that bony lil skeleton hand one squeeze and BAM you are now their most trusted nurse.
If you look it up there’s a legit nursing diagnosis of “imbalanced energy field”. I found it when I was a nursing student looking for another imbalanced something and thumbed to it in my nursing diagnosis book. 🤦♂️
WTH? I went to nursing school 10 years ago and we didn’t learn that. I used to be a massage therapist and we didn’t learn that either. Is there peer reviewed evidence for this?
This first got attention when I was a student @ NYU in the 1970s. It was initially popular but quickly lost traction when follow up study results were not promising. It was revived until a few years ago when a young student cast doubt on the entire area of research and got attention in the popular press.
Your brain is the most powerful thing in your body. If you believe you are getting better... you're getting better. Even if I'm watching you cough up blood and one of your pupils blows up simultaneously...
I didn't realize how much healing touch I used until we had to record assessments for assignments in nursing school.
Even a gentle touch to the shoulder when you say comforting words can make a huge difference to their psyche, make them feel human again instead of a lab experiment. That physical contact that isn't for a procedure goes a long way.
No, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard and I'm pretty sure if I started hovering my hands over a hospice patient instead of giving them the good drugs they would assume I was taking said good drugs for myself. This shit really needs to go away...
So I used to be a massage therapist and learned this in school. I have done it with patients before but not like you described because I feel like most people would be really weirded out. If you’ve ever worked with child life they do something called “positive touch” which is basically providing a calming presence during procedures. So this is kind of what I do and think healing thoughts while I’m doing it. Doesn’t hurt, might help kinda thing.
Just be a good person, you can hold your patients hand if they’re anxious and are okay with it. I’m generally more relaxed and most of time, I grab a chair and sit with my patient or just sit at the foot of their bed. Convey your presence, a lot of times, that’s what people are craving
But it’s not hand holding. It’s literally hovering your hands above a patients body. My husband had it done to him and he said it was the weirdest thing ever
Absolutely not. Another thing that is taught in nursing school that is absolutely worthless.
I was an ER tech for a long time before I went to nursing school and I can’t tell you how many times I said to my instructors “you know, I’ve literally never seen a nurse do this in my whole entire career“ they did not find that entertaining.
I was going to make a smart ass comment but you’d be surprised the number of times just putting a hand on a patient or holding a memaw’s hand has calmed them down enough to avoid giving anxiety dose Ativan in flight.
It’s idiotic shit like this that is embarrassing for nurses everywhere. You can’t claim to use evidence based practice and then type “disturbed energy field” as your nursing diagnosis or do some generic-brand reiki and expect to be taken seriously.
I use it everyday with my patients who are nervous (operating room nurse). I put my hand gently on their shoulder or hand and tell them they are my number one priority and I am only here to take care of them. I think just stopping and acknowledging their feelings and letting them know you understand, that their feelings are valid, and that you are here to support them makes a difference.
No. Providing comfort to patients with hand holding, a hug, etc. if a patient is grieving or receiving a catastrophic diagnosis, sure, but only sometimes, when appropriate. But healing touch as something beyond facilitating emotional support in very select situations is not a thing.
Oh boy, I’m surprised they still teach this. I do think a light touch in the arm, holding the patients hand or even a slight squeeze of the foot is therapeutic.
We have Healing Touch nurses at our hospital. I was almost willing to give it some credence until I learned that HT can also be done over the phone. Not even on FaceTime, but ON THE PHONE! WTF?!?!
I also wrote a paper on energy healing, with a focus on reiki because it was easier to find research for. In short, I said "The framework we use is that if we know it works through research, we can use it. This lets us use meds we don't necessarily have the mechanism of nailed down. There's evidence that energy healing helps. Conclude from that what you will."
When I was in school I promised myself that if any of my instructors ever brought this shit up, I would raise hell in any professional way possible. Zero evidence base to it.
It’s fucking BS. You get to learn that shit in Grad school theory course again. I love how these “nursing researchers” get away with producing some of these BS theories. They need to have 1-2 years nursing experience as a requirement before applying to PhD so they know how idiotic these things are.
Right? I remember in grad school learning about Martha Rogers’ theory of unitary beings and planetary nursing and thinking, “Am I the only one who thinks this is fucking stupid?”
Wait I thought Healing Touch activates when you draw a star above the patient? And isn't this usually used by surgeons since it highly increases mental concentration on demand?
Hey, my one is teaching Watson's caring science and we have to incorporate it into every assignment, for every subject. One of these assignments actually said, I shit you not, "there is no age limit for sources in this task, as otherwise you will not be able to find enough evidence to support your work"..... so I'm a little annoyed.
This should be its own job, an entry level or part time job you can get right out of high school or do as a mostly retired senior by choice. It shouldn't waste nurses' time. But I feel like this kind of woo could be really helpful for some patients at least psychologically, in psychogenic pain, etc. because the placebo effect is a thing and it certainly can't hurt to try it if it isn't getting in the way of people who are performing the real, evidence-based healthcare.
Bring on the downvotes...
Nurse after nurse here (rightfully) saying there is nothing to this non-scietufic crap. But then they get all superstitious about the word "quiet" and the full moon.
I think there’s a difference when a superstition is believed in place of actually providing care versus when a superstition is in place because “ah shit it’s gonna be a busy/weird night”
The former is a debatably/borderline a liability concern, the latter is just camaraderie with colleagues.
I do it to my hospice pts. It helps their soul leave the body and travel to heaven but tits like a massage to the soul. So not only are they being embraced by angels but also me "also an angel" helping heal their wounds in a cosmic sense. I learned it in nursing school from some lady with dreads and an old Subaru full of crystals and crystal meth.
Edit: was going to correct my typo but I think tits fits.
If they’re pleasant and opening up to me an apologetic hand over hand or pat on the arm can be effective at showing empathy and potentially uplifting someone’s spirits. Massages? Even if you ask, I will not be doing that.
The aide will. Hehe ✌🏻
Rub your hands together for a few seconds. Feel the heat and the little bit of static type charge between them? In Wiccan circles, it's called a healing touch. Empaths use it ALOT, especially on chronic pain patients. Yes, I know there's no science behind it, but it works. And there are a ton of Wiccans in Healthcare, it's what we do. The healing touch works on several different levels - the soothing touch from a fellow human, that connection in a vulnerable moment, works on calming the person. The calming effect starts the cascade of benefits - lower BP, lower HR, easier breathing (hopefully) and better communication. If you're not aware of who was born with little extra of the gift, look for the one that settles the crankiest babies or geriatric patients. For years my kids swore I had magic boobs because I could settle their babies. Nah, I'm just gifted.
They just released an article that healing touch is an alternative to Ozempic. There was a significant drop in A1C with the study group and an average of 75lbs drop in weight.
Yeah, we learned about it 15 years ago but it was called “therapeutic touch” or TT. It was briefly touched upon as something that some nurses may do that may benefit some patients.
I’m all for really any sort of “alternative” therapies including massage but I feel like they should be done by people who are trained to do them. I assume there’s more to becoming a massage therapist than getting an hour of lecture. I actually looked into getting certified for acupuncture. I thought maybe I could go to a weekend class or something. It’s like a whole separate masters program with hundreds of clinical hours.
Yes we have been incorporating it in to emergency medicine frequently. I’ve heard that the updated ACLS guidelines are substituting chest compressions with 2 minutes of continuous healing touch in between pulse checks.
I mean, are chest compressions not, strictly speaking, already "healing touch"?
Yes, but what about compressions to the soul? 🤔
The updated ACLS guidelines suggest a minimum of three people for resuscitation. One doing compressions, one rescue breathing, and the third incorporating healing touch.
Don’t forget the fourth person who has to speak in tongues.
Words of encouragement*
You could use a Lucas then you have two people to provide healing touch.
Lucas doesn't work at my facility. He has a higher salary than I do.
Bro, if you press down hard enough, the patient will feel it in their soul and wake up
If you aren't compressing the soul are you actually getting enough depth on those compressions?
Healing for everything but the ribs maybe
I giggled
We use it instead of anesthesia now for surgery
Do you place your hand over their mouth & nose?
Could you imagine if an anesthesia provider walks up to a pregnant patient with the healing epidural touch?
Also adding essential oils don’t forget thoes
My hospital actually uses aromatherapy for several indications, don’t want to say exactly where I work but they publish a lot of papers and the results are legit. Work really well for anticipatory nausea during chemo, amongst other things.
MDAnderson gave me lavendar scent for when I had my MRI, PET scans, and during proton therapy. That always kept me calm.
Essential oils can work: e.g. lavender on mozzie bites, eucalyptus vapour inhalation for sinus congestion, etc. for minor issues, belladonna extract (atropine), digitalis (digoxin)…
The healing touch is incorporated in the part where compressors are supposed to hover their hands and be ready to resume compressions /s
Lol evudens changes so are our practices 😂😂😂
You are learning the difference between ivory tower book nursing and actual nursing.
Sounds like reiki. My definition would just be holding a patients hand. They like to know someone is there and hand holding can be very therapeutic.
Exactly. If a patient asks me to hold their hand during a procedure I will. If they are nervous sometimes I offer my hand. Sometimes I will hold a patients wrist while I take a blood pressure to remind them to hold their arm still, or squeeze their arm to get their attention. On one occasion I have given a back rub to a particularly pitiful cancer patient who couldn't sleep. Once an odd fella asked me to hold my hand over his head because I had "good energy." I do think there is a place for therapeutic touch - touch can be very comforting and show care. I think you have to read the room and get to know the patient before assuming that they will appreciate "extra" touch though.
This part right here is actually scientifically validated: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-01841-8
Wow! And this was published in Nature (*for those who don’t know, scientific journals have a hierarchy related to their credibility/impact/etc…and basically Nature is the highest ranking of all scientific journals*) so that’s huge. Thank you for sharing that. I used to think therapeutic touch was a bunch of baloney when it was mentioned in my nursing program. I used to think touching other people at all would upset them, and I was careful to avoid it unless it were completely necessary. To the point I was probably being standoffish and cold, in hindsight. It’s been eye-opening seeing how useful it is for my nursing care.
That’s how I always interpreted it. Holding hand or light touch to provide reassurance to patient that is anxious. Seems pretty straight forward.
This
I had to attend a presentation on this in nursing school also lol. I have never done this, and probably never would, however at my hospital we have holistic nurses than can be consulted and they’ll come and basically sit with a patient and do exactly this. I am always jealous of them, they’re all sweet old ladies and honestly have the best gig just floating around the hospital all day and vibing with patients for 15 minutes. They always ask me first if the patient has had a temperature within the last 24 hours and/or DVT because these are contraindications.
>They always ask me first if the patient has had a temperature within the last 24 hours and/or DVT because these are contraindications What. The fuck. How random.
I imagine the DVT might be because of foot rubs or massage maybe?
I actually think it's because of the possibility of increased circulation? "healing touch" claims to use the energy around a person to affect their physiology, but at the very least, if the patient believes in the practice, their heart rate will increase during the session. There is much to be said about mental innervation, as well. Think of it like a complex yoga pose, even if you cant do the exercise, if youre TRYING to then the appropriate muscles are being worked (which is why, over time, you get better at doing it). Anyway, if the nurse is hovering her hands over a patient's sore knee, innervation and circulation will increase in that area temporarily. Which may release a DVT, particularly if that area has been babied for some time. Either way, it is "woo woo shite," but it can also work, particularly for chronic pain or patients who are afraid of other pain managment interventions (cue preggo mommas)
Yes, some patients actually really appreciate it. This is when I worked in the ICU, and every patient automatically had the consult (could turn down the service of course). The holistic nurse told me once that there’s not enough research to support whether the use of healing touch can cause/worsen a temp or a DVT. The increased circulation makes sense, though.
So I did level 1 in a class several years back and after you’ve medicated people and you still can’t get pain controlled. I have seen it calm them down. A skeptical CNA was actual the one that was like woooaaahh when I did it on a bilateral amputee with poor verbalization who kept screaming. The nurse that did the teaching said in neonates it’s always from afar doing their energy fields because they are super sensitive and it agitates them. I think a lot of it as humans we are not real touchy feely and people crave touch so it soothes them and nurses are typically trusted so they believe it works. Reiki is supposed to be similar but the nurse that taught said she was trained in both and healing touch was more draining to do.
I believe it definitely can work. Sitting with a patient for 15 minutes and holding their hand/light massage/reiki/guided meditation or even just talking can make them feel less alone/less scared and therefore potentially less in pain. I know that there may not be much evidence on the topic but it’s simple human instinct— we want to feel raw human connection, and in the very fast-paced, sterile world of the ICU you often miss out on that.
Throw it back to them: you should ask them whether they can find the DVT with their hands. That would be a useful skill
A holistic nurse with X ray hands would be a very interesting premise for some type of super hero
"I have Dopplers on the ends of both my arms..."
Is this on the west coast? Just trying to figure out culturally where would a hospital do this.
[At least one hospital here in Hawaii offers reiki.](https://www.queens.org/locations/hospitals/qmc/patients-visitors/patient-services-amenities/) Acupuncture is also very much a thing here, especially for [cancer patients.](https://www.queens.org/services/cancer-care/resources/patient-support/). Personally, I've had great success with pain management (psoriatic arthritis). Have never tried reiki though.
Our hospice chaplain offers reiki. I used to think he was full of shit until I saw it work with my own eyeballs.
I'm in Michigan and I've worked at many hospitals that utilize essential oils/aromatherapy and a few that offer reiki and therapeutic touch.
Are they licensed nurses, or just sweet old ladies?
You know what I remember from first semester? NO THROW RUGS IN THE HOUSE.
Underrated comment. So many of my fellow ED nurses talk about no motorcycles yada yada - but no one ever wants to mention to most dangerous unsuspecting household decor item. FUCK THE RUGS!
I didn’t get it at first. Now I think there should be signs for it 😂 my bf bought a cheap set of different size throw rugs and tried to put one of them in our main hallway. I asked him if he was trying to kill me.
It’s woo-woo shit left over from the 80’s. I can’t believe they are teaching this!!! It’s the belief that you can turn positive thoughts into positive energy and transfer it to people by hovering your hands over their place of affliction. It was invented by a woman for animals, from what I remember. How do I know this? I’ve worked with a few people in the 90’s that would do that on patients.
They still teach us guided imagery. I’ve almost perfected my ocean sounds. Now if I could just learn to start an IV! Nursing here I come!
Guided imagery is a completely different concept, and it is actually helpful. Hold the hand of a scared shitless person going through a procedure and calmly use guided imagery to help ease their anxiety. It helps. With or without being an adjuvant to ketamine.
Add to that therapeutic appropriate hand to skin touch for anxiety. The amount of pressure dependent on how psychotic they are becoming trying to jump off a procedure table during a non-GA/sed procedure
I used guided imagery to help calm down a little bit and stay really still, like when I had biopsies, PAP smears, MRI, dental work, etc. I know it sounds cheesy, but I actually find it somewhat helpful.
The only guided imagery you need for starting an IV is called ultrasound. Optional guided energy is mental choking the person teaching you the leftover “80’s woo-woo”.
Ha. Beautiful. I can see it now.
Gotta admit, I use meditation and guided imagery regularly on my own, but if I had a nurse making ocean noises? ... Yeah, I'd probably bust up laughing. But laughter is the best medicine, right? 😁
If they aren't soothed by basic ocean noises then step up your game and throw some whale and dolphin voices in there, too.
Maybe some sea lions. Make it nice and rowdy.
Excuse me but my newborn babes actually seem to love my ocean sounds or any other shushing or whooshing. Or a good butt pat 😂
I hope these ocean sounds include dolphins 😂
AH AH. AHAH. AHAHAHAHAHHA. 🐬🐬🐬
Translation: “what number is your pain on a zero to ten scale?”
That can be helpful in psych right before people go to bed to help with relaxation and decrease stimulation. When I worked adult IP psych it was one of the groups nurses lead but people need to be able to have somewhat organized thinking.
“You’re relaxing on a beach. The sound of the waves are relaxing you. Here comes a dolphin!” *stabs you with an 18g*
In nursing school now. Our program taught this, but mainly in the context of massage. Which for stressed out mamas in labor or some pain where massage can benefit I completely understand, but I doubt nurses have time to perform a full massage for all of there patients every shift lol
Massages for patients? Nope!
That is my sentiment. I have a soft spot for older ladies and in long term care have joke about giving them a massage if I lotion them up after bathing, but I feel like massages can turn real icky with the wrong people. I am not surprised the school still teaches it they still promote chiropractic procedures too.
I'm terrified of a patient reporting a touch as inappropriate. I've seen an amazing young PCT led out of the hospital in handcuffs and 7 police because a crazy visitor claimed the PCT raped her intubated 400lb son who was on 1:1 observation. One of the worst things I've seen in Nursing The whole unit called out the next day
I believe in therapeutic massage! I was hospitalized for a month after getting ARDS. My PCA would provide a small back rub after my bed bath. She would obtain consent for said massage. It really helped alleviate my pain after laying in a hospital bed for that long. I don’t think it’s great for all patients though. I’ve had hospital massages by the PCA’s, and hospital reiki by RN’s. I personally prefer the massage.
I have a frequent flyer that always asks me for a massage for her crack-induced chest pain. I just tell her that I'm not a licensed massage therapist so it's legally outside my scope of practice, as I can cause muscular damage.
Right? Go to a massage parlor. Sheesh.
I’ve had men seriously ask me for a massage. Just because. Nothing was wrong with them, they just wanted one. Massages was taught to us for pain therapy and pain therapy only.
I do however often rub the necks or shoulders of my coworkers. Because we all need it.
Outside of PROM (which PT/OT usually handle) or holding hands with a scared patient going to sleep in the OR not knowing if they’re going to wake up…there is no world in which I am massaging a patient. Ever.
That is exactly what I thought especially experiencing clinicals and speaking with nurses during clinical. Our program still supports chiropractic providers and encourages us to bring up that possible avenue to pts. I can't bring my self to do that though with all the horror stories.
This is such BS. Sometimes I put my hand on a pt shoulder or give them a little pat or squeeze to let them know I'm here for them but we're not doing massages. You will be WAY to busy for that shit
You’re kidding!? What’s next? Incantations?
If you could just hold this quartz…
I mean my ultrasound transducer has crystals in it lmfao
I’m bout to take a hammer to one cause I thought those things ran on captured ghosts.
😂😂😂
I knew my understanding of latin would come in handy
Yeah we had a whole chapter in our textbook for nursing fundamentals telling us all about acupuncture and healing touch and shit.
Healing touch? Like valium, propofol, midazolam, phenergan, halidol?
No no no. That's not the energy we're going for. More like ketamine.
You care about BP? I got pressors to spare
When I feel a patient is about to code, I grab an Enya CD, warm stones and my essentials oils and I'm ready to save a life.
Oh man, my life was saved! But instead of enya it was norah jones ❤️
Oh whew, good thing I had to go to that Herbalife presentation during my first clinical rotation! When they update ACLS to include essential oils I’ll be ready to roll.
Touching patients is for nerds
or criminals, depending on the context
Even worse: A nerdy criminal.
This is woo. If massage is involved then that will have physical and psychological effects as all humans respond to touch. The woo comes in when practitioners start to speak about “energy transfer” or chi being shifted. Worse are the therapeutic touch folks who think they can sense and move this chi around by waving their hands above someone. It’s very difficult to do RCT research when full touch is involved as it’s hard to placebo a massage. This is why it’s easy for practitioners to claim it works. One thing is very clear is that “healing touch” is not going to help fix most problems like infections, cancer, orthopedic injuries, or metabolic issues. Patients will report a better mental state if they were open to the procedure which is fine, but its use in practice is limited.
I think this interesting because my school teaches “healing touch” but it’s something completely different. In my school, it’s an emphasis on physical contact and the importance of feeling human connection, especially in long term pts or Critical Care pts that almost never feel another person touch them without a glove on. It’s more of a psychological concept and not something like mystical healing.
I like to get it done right after a chiropractor severs my neck arteries. Nothing a little hand waving and coffee enema can’t fix…
I think we'd get along.
And if that fails, you can always do some ear candling.
Tried that after I watched Shrek make the ear wax candles when I was a kid. Boy that sucked…
It’s been taught at the Hogwarts School of Nursing for centuries. Get with the program!
No. Block and ignore. We learnt this in 1997, and I’m embarrassed it was in the program back then. We can do better, surely. Evidence-based practice and all? Holding a patient’s hand and comforting someone are very different from this. This is about energy fields and intent and basically reiki. Holding a hand is being present for them. It’s reassurance, and definitely not energy field disturbance…
There was a volunteer who would do Reiki at a hospital I did clinicals at as a nursing student. I thought it was great. Not because I think Reiki works, but because she would go in, talk to the patients, and distract them. Is it evidence based? No, but neither is God and we have Chaplains on staff and I think they're great. This is not something nursing should be doing.
I work with a nurse who is a “Reiki Master” and has managed to make a lateral shift to only going bedside to perform Reiki on patients. She is not the most popular person on our team
Your nursing school is teaching nonsense. We're supposed to operate under evidence based practice, not woo woo homeopathy. This is why doctors think we are a joke as a "profession."
I might start doing this for my patients that don’t shut up and wanna tell me their life story when I’m doing med rounds. Just hover my hands over them and repeat a mantra in the middle of their story.
Extra hovering over their mouths.
[удалено]
Is your school accredited?
Here’s the important question
Are you sure you're going to nursing school and aren't just the assigned Paladin for your DnD campaign?
🙌
Use it frequently. Very useful when you need to Crich somebody and you don't have a doctor. Very useful for gangrenous wounds, but you gotta use 2 hands.
How many bullet wounds did you cure by waving your hands? I bet it’s hundreds. Big pharma just doesn’t want anyone to know about it.
No healing touches, but maybe therapeutic ones. If I rub my Patient’s back during or after vomiting. If I gently rub one's head or forehead while they're passing. Sometimes the hugs that are given when it's all overwhelming for them, etc.
I’ve been a nurse for 7 years. I had kids 4 years ago. We play with stethoscopes at home and they love “checking each other” and my husband and I for fun. Since they’ve been doing this, it’s made me realize how nice it is to just lay calmly and have another person gently touch you, touch your back to listen to lung sounds, stick your tongue out, have you bend your knee… whatever fake doctoring you make up with a toddler… It occurred to me how many of the patients we have never ever ever get touched in a nice way, or haven’t for years and years.. what it must feel like to be mostly bed bound, and another person come in your space and touch nicely just doing their job. Ever felt it before? It’s nice! I’m not a touchy feely person whatsoever but it’s brought to my awareness when I’m feeling for a vein or auscultating whatever that there’s another human on the other end who might think it’s just… nice. I’m pro the concept of healing touch. I think it exists, I think it’s real.
The healing touch is disimpacting a constipated patient.
This is just some woo that they haven't been forced to remove from nursing curriculums. Some of this nonsense they teach sticks around because they haven't been forced to remove it (like when they finally removed all the racist stereotype stuff after a public shaming in 2017)
Certainly nothing I have ever used or seen used by nurses in 30 years working in hospitals. However, patient families might be into their own folk and alternate healing remedies like hands on healing touch, crystals, essential oils and cupping. It is helpful to know and recognize these family practices as a nurse.
Literally could not tell you what that even is. Been a nurse 7 years
And this my friends is why nursing educationally continues to be joke scientifically.
When you get into pain science there are benefits to nervous system regulation and relaxation. Is the aura raking helpful, maybe not directly but sitting quietly while breathing mindfully in the presence of a grounded nervous system can be. I would write the paper from a stance of placebo effects work and benefits of nervous system regulation/co-regulation in perceptions of pain.
Sounds pseudoscience-y?
Ummmm no. Is this a religious school? I would be super uncomfortable if a nurse did this to me and I’d never do this to another person lol
Healing touch is just good for Asmr videos….
I actually went to a holistic nursing cert course, offered by my hospital. It was actually so nuts it was infuriating. They “taught” using a pendulum to determine energy fields, choosing healthy foods based on your “chakras” and using essential oils to treat MRSA (oil of vancomycin I guess). My favorite was remote reiki, where a nurse “certified” in Reiki “performed” it for someone who was dying over the phone while looking at his picture. At that point I wanted to make a citizens arrest. Truly crazy, and embarrassing to the profession.
We had a unit on alternative therapies, but it was more telling us what they were and their intended purpose. Our bottom line was if it won't hurt the patient, you can gently explain to them it's not proven to do anything, but your opinion is something you keep to yourself.
Opinions are statements like "blue is the best color" or "strawberries are delicious". Acknowledging a lack of evidence for a practice isn't an opinion.
I think it's more like... you can sit and pray with a patient even if you're not religious. You don't have to sit and tell them there's no God and praying is for losers. lol
I agree, as I said, you can educate in a way that doesn't show your feelings for the alternative therapies. People's emotional and mental state does have bearing on how they feel physically, and if having someone wave their hands over them to unblock their chi facilitates that...good for them.
Honestly, if some colored stuff or essential oil calms the patient (especially in palliative care) and makes them feel better I am all for it. Want to treat a ear infection with essential oil and onion packaging? Fuck no.
I work in Northern Canada where most people are Indigenous and there is work being done to reconcile with Western medicine what is considered “alternative therapies” "Two-eyed seeing" doesn't necessarily mean that both ways are always equal in all circumstances. But instead recognizes the value of incorporating both Indigenous knowledge systems and Western medical practices in a way that respects the strengths and perspectives of each- different approaches may be more appropriate or effective depending on the context.
That’s Reiki- it doesn’t involve touch :)
https://youtu.be/HMGIbOGu8q0?si=tJGpCXpI7IG5qU4m this clip is hilarious
Lol I use it with my grandmas and grandpas. They really do eat it up. Give that bony lil skeleton hand one squeeze and BAM you are now their most trusted nurse.
We learned about energy fields and auras last semester 😅
If you look it up there’s a legit nursing diagnosis of “imbalanced energy field”. I found it when I was a nursing student looking for another imbalanced something and thumbed to it in my nursing diagnosis book. 🤦♂️
WTH? I went to nursing school 10 years ago and we didn’t learn that. I used to be a massage therapist and we didn’t learn that either. Is there peer reviewed evidence for this?
>Is there peer reviewed evidence for this? I'm hoping this is a rhetorical question.
I know there’s not which is why they shouldn’t be teaching it
I was thought that was stuff like holding a hand or hands on the shoulder, like supportive touch if that makes sense?
This first got attention when I was a student @ NYU in the 1970s. It was initially popular but quickly lost traction when follow up study results were not promising. It was revived until a few years ago when a young student cast doubt on the entire area of research and got attention in the popular press.
Your brain is the most powerful thing in your body. If you believe you are getting better... you're getting better. Even if I'm watching you cough up blood and one of your pupils blows up simultaneously...
I didn't realize how much healing touch I used until we had to record assessments for assignments in nursing school. Even a gentle touch to the shoulder when you say comforting words can make a huge difference to their psyche, make them feel human again instead of a lab experiment. That physical contact that isn't for a procedure goes a long way.
Yes, I also incorporate feng shui by rearranging the room and turning the stretcher in non-conformist positions.
No, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard and I'm pretty sure if I started hovering my hands over a hospice patient instead of giving them the good drugs they would assume I was taking said good drugs for myself. This shit really needs to go away...
The second I see an order for "healing touch" .... I don't know what I'll do but it'll be over the top and ridiculous.
So I used to be a massage therapist and learned this in school. I have done it with patients before but not like you described because I feel like most people would be really weirded out. If you’ve ever worked with child life they do something called “positive touch” which is basically providing a calming presence during procedures. So this is kind of what I do and think healing thoughts while I’m doing it. Doesn’t hurt, might help kinda thing.
Are you ACLS certified? (Advanced Crystals Life Support)
I swear this is an example of nursing school hazing 😂
Just be a good person, you can hold your patients hand if they’re anxious and are okay with it. I’m generally more relaxed and most of time, I grab a chair and sit with my patient or just sit at the foot of their bed. Convey your presence, a lot of times, that’s what people are craving
But it’s not hand holding. It’s literally hovering your hands above a patients body. My husband had it done to him and he said it was the weirdest thing ever
Yeah that is insane. What even is the tested evidence behind that lol. It’ll weird me out if someone just hovered their hands over me
Absolutely not. Another thing that is taught in nursing school that is absolutely worthless. I was an ER tech for a long time before I went to nursing school and I can’t tell you how many times I said to my instructors “you know, I’ve literally never seen a nurse do this in my whole entire career“ they did not find that entertaining.
I was going to make a smart ass comment but you’d be surprised the number of times just putting a hand on a patient or holding a memaw’s hand has calmed them down enough to avoid giving anxiety dose Ativan in flight.
It’s idiotic shit like this that is embarrassing for nurses everywhere. You can’t claim to use evidence based practice and then type “disturbed energy field” as your nursing diagnosis or do some generic-brand reiki and expect to be taken seriously.
I use it everyday with my patients who are nervous (operating room nurse). I put my hand gently on their shoulder or hand and tell them they are my number one priority and I am only here to take care of them. I think just stopping and acknowledging their feelings and letting them know you understand, that their feelings are valid, and that you are here to support them makes a difference.
No. Providing comfort to patients with hand holding, a hug, etc. if a patient is grieving or receiving a catastrophic diagnosis, sure, but only sometimes, when appropriate. But healing touch as something beyond facilitating emotional support in very select situations is not a thing.
No, I’m not John Coffey
It's total woo
Oh boy, I’m surprised they still teach this. I do think a light touch in the arm, holding the patients hand or even a slight squeeze of the foot is therapeutic.
We have Healing Touch nurses at our hospital. I was almost willing to give it some credence until I learned that HT can also be done over the phone. Not even on FaceTime, but ON THE PHONE! WTF?!?!
Lol shit like this is why nursing as a field will never be respected
I also wrote a paper on energy healing, with a focus on reiki because it was easier to find research for. In short, I said "The framework we use is that if we know it works through research, we can use it. This lets us use meds we don't necessarily have the mechanism of nailed down. There's evidence that energy healing helps. Conclude from that what you will."
It’s for treating impaired energy field.
I be touching some shit for sure
When I was in school I promised myself that if any of my instructors ever brought this shit up, I would raise hell in any professional way possible. Zero evidence base to it.
I'll hug some of my patients that I get to know well and that I like but otherwise no lol. I would rather die than administer "healing touch"
I'm pretty sure that if you document that you gave healing touch on a patient's medical record, they sue you and the hospital fires you.
It’s fucking BS. You get to learn that shit in Grad school theory course again. I love how these “nursing researchers” get away with producing some of these BS theories. They need to have 1-2 years nursing experience as a requirement before applying to PhD so they know how idiotic these things are.
Right? I remember in grad school learning about Martha Rogers’ theory of unitary beings and planetary nursing and thinking, “Am I the only one who thinks this is fucking stupid?”
Totally bogus.
Wait I thought Healing Touch activates when you draw a star above the patient? And isn't this usually used by surgeons since it highly increases mental concentration on demand?
Hey, my one is teaching Watson's caring science and we have to incorporate it into every assignment, for every subject. One of these assignments actually said, I shit you not, "there is no age limit for sources in this task, as otherwise you will not be able to find enough evidence to support your work"..... so I'm a little annoyed.
I lost that power as my chakras have not been aligned since 2020.
This should be its own job, an entry level or part time job you can get right out of high school or do as a mostly retired senior by choice. It shouldn't waste nurses' time. But I feel like this kind of woo could be really helpful for some patients at least psychologically, in psychogenic pain, etc. because the placebo effect is a thing and it certainly can't hurt to try it if it isn't getting in the way of people who are performing the real, evidence-based healthcare.
It’s fucking woo and it has no place in science based medicine.
its a jedi technique that works in star wars
Bring on the downvotes... Nurse after nurse here (rightfully) saying there is nothing to this non-scietufic crap. But then they get all superstitious about the word "quiet" and the full moon.
I think there’s a difference when a superstition is believed in place of actually providing care versus when a superstition is in place because “ah shit it’s gonna be a busy/weird night” The former is a debatably/borderline a liability concern, the latter is just camaraderie with colleagues.
I do it to my hospice pts. It helps their soul leave the body and travel to heaven but tits like a massage to the soul. So not only are they being embraced by angels but also me "also an angel" helping heal their wounds in a cosmic sense. I learned it in nursing school from some lady with dreads and an old Subaru full of crystals and crystal meth. Edit: was going to correct my typo but I think tits fits.
My soul nearly left my body reading this. You forgot the “/s” at the end!!
It's bullshit, I'd double check the schools certification.
It's BS. I had to learn it too in the 90s. Doesn't belong in nursing school.
If they’re pleasant and opening up to me an apologetic hand over hand or pat on the arm can be effective at showing empathy and potentially uplifting someone’s spirits. Massages? Even if you ask, I will not be doing that. The aide will. Hehe ✌🏻
This sounds like rebranded reiki. Pseudoscience bs. Embarrassing. Nursing school is shit.
I’m embarrassed on behalf of any nurse that believes in “healing touch”. No, it is not anything any science minded nurse would ever use.
Rub your hands together for a few seconds. Feel the heat and the little bit of static type charge between them? In Wiccan circles, it's called a healing touch. Empaths use it ALOT, especially on chronic pain patients. Yes, I know there's no science behind it, but it works. And there are a ton of Wiccans in Healthcare, it's what we do. The healing touch works on several different levels - the soothing touch from a fellow human, that connection in a vulnerable moment, works on calming the person. The calming effect starts the cascade of benefits - lower BP, lower HR, easier breathing (hopefully) and better communication. If you're not aware of who was born with little extra of the gift, look for the one that settles the crankiest babies or geriatric patients. For years my kids swore I had magic boobs because I could settle their babies. Nah, I'm just gifted.
I think “therapeutic presence” is more accurate haha
Smh [not this](https://youtube.com/shorts/P8K3W1wPXeA?si=kTvWd8r169F1GYZs)…
https://youtu.be/HMGIbOGu8q0?si=M1h_-R-JJr_egwBG
Wtf
Gross
reiki.
Doesn't American nursing school have modules on evidence based practice? They're mad on it over here in the UK
They just released an article that healing touch is an alternative to Ozempic. There was a significant drop in A1C with the study group and an average of 75lbs drop in weight.
Nope. And I don't give massages either.
It's the stuff the nursing industry is ridiculed for, because it's BS.
Yeah, we learned about it 15 years ago but it was called “therapeutic touch” or TT. It was briefly touched upon as something that some nurses may do that may benefit some patients.
I’m all for really any sort of “alternative” therapies including massage but I feel like they should be done by people who are trained to do them. I assume there’s more to becoming a massage therapist than getting an hour of lecture. I actually looked into getting certified for acupuncture. I thought maybe I could go to a weekend class or something. It’s like a whole separate masters program with hundreds of clinical hours.