Therapeutic Touch

[ldh, BSN, RN]

Hello,

I am a senior nursing student set to begin my consolidation at a NICU in a couple of days (I worked briefly in this area during my peds rotation). I'm so nervous, scared and excited at the same time that I can hardly sleep. It's been very encouraging to read all of your posts in the sticky section as to why being a NICU nurse is so rewarding. I am looking forward to being in an environment where it seems that the majority of the nurses really want to be there and love their challenging jobs.

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone has heard of or used the technique of Therapeutic Touch in the NICU environment. If so, were these techniques useful? In what way? I've heard from some of my instructors that there is an actual course that you can take to learn the technique. Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about this. I realize that I could just "google" the topic but I wanted to know if any of you who are experienced in this field have any input. Thank you! :)

[Myxel67]

There's not actually any touching in therapeutic touch. The practitioner holds her/his hands above the body of the pt in order to "feel the aura" or energy field and moves the hands along the body to try to smooth out the aura. The infection control nurse at my last hosptal was a practitioner of TT and she talked about it a lot and taught a class.

A few years ago the 11 year old daughter of an MD decided to put TT to the test. She devised an experiment in which the practitioner's hands were put through an opening in a partition. She then challenged the TT practitioners to detect the presence of her hand by "feeling or being aware of the energy field or aura. The TT practitioner could not see her. Anyway, this young student went on to conclude that TT was pure bunk. I believe her results were published in JAMA. Enthusiasts and practitioners of TT replied that the experiment had no meaning and proved nothing.

Since Kangarooing involves actual skin to skin contact, it doesn't sound like it's actually related to TT. I'll have to research.

Google therapeutic touch. There are many references both pro and con. This one mentions the science experiment. As you can see by the name of the site, it's a "con."

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/tt.html

This one gives some history and theory:

http://skepdic.com/tt.html

This site references numerous links both pro and con:

http://www.phact.org/e/tt/

[ldh, BSN, RN]

Thank you very much for your insight - had no idea that it doesn't actually involve touching. I will google it and follow the link you provided. Thanks!

[Jolie, BSN]

You can also research infant massage, a technique which has been demonstrated to improve weight gain and reduce length of stay for certain preemies in the NICU.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

We have some nurses that practice this in our NICU. IM me if you want details.

[justjenny]

Our units description of therapeutic touch is containment, facilitated tucking, etc. you can google these terms for definitions but it is basically during a "hands on" (assessment, etc) the baby still feels confined and secure and is not left flailing around the bed while an IV is started, etc. It is a good way to "pause" during a hands on to allow the baby to recover in order to continue with a diaper change, etc.

Jenny