by Jodie5

I am a new graduate beginning in the workforce. Throughout school I have learned many concepts and theories regarding holistic care, however while at work this care seems forgetten due to less help and more responsibility. I would like some input on how nurses try to adjust to there busy schedules while still providing there patients holistic care.

Certainly, the current health care system allows for even less time to be with our patients. They are turning to alternative therapies to receive the "care" they do not get under managed care. The best place to start implementing holistic nursing is within oneself, to approach the patient as a whole person not matter the procedure. Let every touch be a healing encounter. The next step is to become informed about possible non-invasive interventions that can help the person heal. Experience these interventions yourself, study and learn them, find out how others put them into practice. Work on the staff. That will win them over every time. Then write policy, look for research money...

I am a Healing Touch practitioner and psychiatric nurse. We were able to write policy on appropriate touch so that nurses could touch the patients. I've used this intervention to calm an anxious patient, and to calm myself.

There are hospitals in Ohio and Missouri, among others, who have instituted holistic therapies into their policies and procedures. It can be done!

Thanks for your post.

Thank you for answering my question so promptly! I am currently in a seminar class where we are discussing different methods of care. Can you explain to me a little more about healing touch. I would love to share your techniques in class with my fellow students and professor. Our last discussion centered on holistic care and how many professionals in this field only think about healing one's physical body. Thanks again for sharing with me your ideas and expertise!

The hospital where I work uses theaputic touch on the floor where they treat cancer patients. It is also used on the rehab patients and I think the chronic ventilator patients. I work in ICU and am rarely pulled to these floors but I do know some of the nurses have gone through hospital-based classes on theraputic and healing touch.
Deanna

What do you, as a nurse, feel the benefits of therapeutic touch are? Have you personally seen results from this form of care? How are nurses implementing it in their daily routines?

I am a Healing Touch practitioner and instructor. We incorporate Therapeutic Touch as one of the modalities we use. Both are essentially hands-on energy healing. The benefits are amazing. This work promotes relaxation and subsequent effectivenss of pain medication, promotes wound healing, clears the energy field of anesthesia. It helps decrease stress for the patient, the family and the nurse. It is non invasive, nontoxic and comes from a loving center. To me that is what nursing care ought to be primarily about.
I highly recommend that nurses experience this modality for themselves. We can talk about it...receiving it helps make some sense of it. Also, there are classes in TT and HT all over the country. Experience will provide some of the best answers to your questions.
Pamela

jodie
you have received much good input on healing touch from some experts.i just want to say that there many other holistic measures that can be used to promote holistic care.
just teaching your pts some deep breathing techniques when they are anxious is one basic measure that can be incorporated easily.(you may need to do it yourself!) you can also work with the whole person just by acknowledging his/her various needs- referrals to self care classes /relaxation training after hospitalization,asking about support systems in their lives, spiritual resources,etc. you don't have to solve all the problems. sometimes just the acknowledgment is enough. it can help to normalize the pts feelings and concerns too.
it can also increase the feeling of trust and improve your relationship with the pt.

you are bringing up a very good point in general-you are taught the importance of holism, but the reality is that you have to be creative in order to practice this in the current health care environment. you may want to lobby for change by educating the staff,sharing some techniques etc.start with the staff that is more flexible and open.work on the relationship development. one good thing about the disequilibrium in health care is that it will produce change. by being proactive, you can work to make this change positive.

Re: How is holistic care used today?

I have been teaching and practicing Holistic Nursing for a long time.
Nurses often integrate holistic, healing practices into their daily work: whether teaching a breathing technique for anxiety and pain (while you are going to get the pain med...that perhaps the patient won't even need when you return with it) or a hands( or off the body) energy healing and massage.
I believe nurses are holistic in our world view knowing that everything impacts our health and well being. We have unfortunately learned from the medical model to compartmentalize and fragment the whole person.
At our nursing roots, nursing is a Healing Art and special in our current medical model.
Holistic Sue

Re: How is holistic care used today?

Healing Touch is an awesome way to decrease anxiety, manage pain with or without medication, speed wound healing, & promote wellness. My focus group is my co-workers, nurses & healthcare providers who often do not focus on themselves. Nurses are stressed & many times addictive, whether to over-achievment, depressants, stimulants, or co-dependant. I use the HT techniques to care for my co-workers on the job, in the break area, the nursing station, a hallway or elevator. It can be as quickly as a 1-2 minute technique or making an appointment to see me in my private practice for an hour or more. My hospital has no current policies implemented for HT. But believe me I used HT techniques prior to starting an IV, to comfort a crying baby or an anxious patient. It goes to the heart & soul of nursing to practice this way, truly heart centered caring. Read Dr Mimi Guarneri's book "The Heart Speaks", published in 2006. or go to www.healingtouch.net to learn more.