Disturbed Energy Field? Yes or No?

healingtouchRN · Jan 30, 2008

When I taught in the University system (Critical Care @ the bedside), I encouraged nursing diagnosis outside of what was written in the highlighted areas of the books. I wanted Thought placed & then directive energy to the plans of care. Not just safety, & the obvious (meds, treatments) but energy work (such as Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, Reiki, etc). I wanted the students to realize that just because the school they attend does not formally teach these modalities of Holistic Care, it doesn't mean the CLIENT may not benefit from or desire these options, regardless of the opinion of the nurse/physician. I can put it out there as an option. I've had students get so excited that they could see past the same old plans of care putting something greater in motion.

I do feel & see energy fields. Say what you will, it is what it is. I don't wear a sign that says, "see HEF". I use my skills with my nursing & massage degrees to give the best care at the bedside, or table side, that I can give.

Yesterday, a retired nurse in her late 70's consulted my services for Healing Touch to help her spouse who has Parkinson's, leaving him with what she called "low energy levels". I will be seeing them this weekend for that purpose & to hopefully change/improve his "disturbed Energy level" (& teach the wife a way to improve that.)

Judge not, until you've been through the training & feel the results yourself.

BTW, I have done critical care my entire career including trauma & cardiac. I really do use this in my practice at the hospital & private practice. :balloons:

DisturbedEnergy said:
Probably the most exciting thing I've seen in the nursing books since I started school was the idea that "Disburbed Energy Field" was an actual nursing diagnosis. Granted, it's not likely one I'll be using on my care plan while I'm in school but it'll be something I consider for every patient I come across. I won't advertise it unless I find myself in a clinic where patients are actively seeking alternative modalities but energy is something that is important to me. It's one of those things that if I couldn't use that tool, I'd likely leave nursing. When I'm done with nursing school, I'll still have more training in energy theories. Evaluating a patient energetically seems as reasonable as your head to toe assessment and it's probably something you do without realizing it!

imenid37 · Jan 30, 2008

Whether you believe in the merits of Reiki or other types of disciplines that advocate attention to the "energy field", it is not nursing. It is not part of the basic education for nursing. The vast majority of RN's don't posess the skills to assess this situation. Therefore, it should not be a "nursing diagnosis." I do agree that much of NANDA is just worthless. This just demonstrates how someone with a leaning toward alternative healing used their pull w/ NANDA to put something forward which is not useable for the nurse at the bedside and his/her patient. May be this needs to go in the directory of Reiki, massage therapy, or some otherr field's diagnoses. It does make those at the bedside look at some of nursing's so called leaders w/ disgust for being so very out of touch. BTW, I am not slamming Reiki. Reiki could be of use to a patient who ascribes to it when performed by a practitioner who is skilled in its practice. That is not your average nurse, however.

DisturbedEnergy · Jan 30, 2008

imenid37 said:
The vast majority of RN's don't posess the skills to assess this situation. Therefore, it should not be a "nursing diagnosis."

I get your point but how skilled are most nurses at assessing "impaired religiosity" or "spiritual distress"? There are a number of NANDA diagnoses that would not be used unless you are in a nursing specialty where it applies. Nurses outside of that specialty may not be skilled at assessing the patient in relation to those diagnoses (I'm thinking of things like "Impaired Child Attachment").

A nurse can always say "that's not my area of expertise but I'd be happy to find someone who can help." We can always refer to a chaplain, counselor, social worker, massage therapist, etc.

As for the usefulness of NANDA diagnoses, they are helpful as a student to help us wrap our heads around the difference between a medical diagnosis vs a nursing diagnosis and they guide our careplans. I can definitely understand where they would out-live the initial benefits though. Besides, don't most facilities have a standard careplan based on the norms for the unit? Ours does.

NANDA diagnoses, helpful learning tool - cumbersome and impractical in practice.

Woodenpug, BSN · Jan 30, 2008

Plenty of evidence shows that it does not work. https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/tt.html has a simple article and a method for testing these energy field tx's.

One important factor in nursing is treating a patient in a culturally appropriate manner. So even though TT and the like are not actual treatments, in the sense that they have at best only a placebo effect, they should be included when culturally appropriate.

suanna · Jan 30, 2008

Is it no wonder that nursing is trivialized by the medical community. Can anyone honestly say we are a respectable, science based profession when they read that diagnosis? Nursing has a long way to go! When I read stuff like this I'm embarrassed to say I'm a nurse.

zenman · Feb 2, 2008

I wouldn't worry too much about losing your status. I decided to go back and study the original mind-body practitioners and you would be amazed at the health professionals who are doing the same. Lot's of nurses, psychologists, physicians...and even three physicists that I've studied with.

"Shamanic experiences are quite natural, only our culture has become so

removed from them that even our scientific observers do not possess the

appropriate concepts or experience to understand them." - Ian Prattis

"Many shamanic techniques make good

psychological and scientific sense."

- Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D.

fasolagrrl · Feb 22, 2008

"I do feel & see energy fields. Say what you will, it is what it is."

They just don't exist.

leslie :-D · Feb 23, 2008

Of course we have energy fields!

Life is energy.

Man is energy.

But w/o a concrete foundation in which to apply it, there are many, many more dx's that could address disturbed energy, and put everything back in balance.

I think the dx is futile.

But that doesn't negate my beliefs about energy fields.

There's much to be said about western medicine.

Not all of it is founded.

Leslie

holiday2525 · Apr 5, 2008

I've included it in one of my assignments. I put it in because the pt. was that type pf pt, i.e. hippi-ish, friut and granola, all natural cosmic balance type person.

While I don't think it belong in a nursing dx, I think this whole thing with nursing dx is garbage anyway - but I'm a student what do I know. Actually I'm a former behavoiral medicine phd student that ran out of time, we always worked of the med dx, and I guess I still do.

LilgirlRN, ADN, RN · Jul 12, 2008

Ya know let people believe what they wanna believe. Everyone has a different opinion. If it works for them it works. Chinese medicine has been around for a long time, personally I don't see how a bear's gall bladder can help me in anyway, but they do. It's like taking sugar pills, works for some.... the placebo effect.

suanna · Jul 12, 2008

Thank you! I am now so much more thankful to be out of school and away from the "nursing diagnosis" fluff. As long as we allow nonsense like this to infiltrate our practice we will have trouble getting people to perceive the practice of nursing as a profession. How is the disturbance in the energy field measured? What factors improve the energy fields flow of make it worse? What was the patients baseling energy flow? Unless we can answer these questions it isn't science- it's just new-age techno-babble. This stuff belongs in the National Enquirer, not nursing education. When I read that stuff like this in our practice I am embarrassed to be a nurse.

CitrusBeeRN · Jul 12, 2008

This nursing dx. was my all-time fave in school!! Much to the chagrin of my clinical instructors, I included it in a few care plans. Someone has to be concerned about the patients' 'energy field,' right?! :wink2: