Title : Therapeutic touch™ in a geriatric palliative care unit a retrospective review
Abstract:
Complementary therapies are increasingly used in palliative care (PC) as an adjunct to the standard management of symptoms to achieve an overall well-being for patients with malignant and non-malignant terminal illnesses. A Therapeutic Touch (TT™) Program was introduced to a geriatric Palliative Care Unit (PCU) in October 2010 with two volunteer TT™ Practitioners providing treatment.
Objective
To conduct a retrospective review of TT™ services provided to patients in an in-patient geriatric PCU in order to understand their responses to TT™.
Methods
A retrospective medical chart review was conducted on both patients who received TT™ as well as a random selection of patients who did not receive TT™ from October 2010–June 2013. Client characteristics and the TT™ Practitioners' observations of the patients' response to treatment were collected and analyzed.
Results
Patients who did not receive TT™ tended to have lower admitting Palliative Performance Scale scores, shorter length of stay and were older. Based on a sample of responses provided by patients and observed by the TT™ practitioner, the majority of patients receiving treatment achieved a state of relaxation or sleep.
Conclusions
This retrospective chart review suggests that implementation of a TT™ program for an inpatient geriatric PCU is feasible, and appears to be safe, and well-tolerated. Moreover, patient responses, as recorded in the TT™ practitioners' session notes, suggest beneficial effects of TT™ for a significant number of participants with no evidence of negative sequelae. Therefore, the use of TT in this difficult setting appears to have potential value as an adjunct or complementary therapy to help patients relax.
