Abstract
Abstract: A case study of one nurse's experience of Therapeutic Touch is presented. The major themes of the interview data are discussed by the researcher. The study provides a deeper insight into the caring relationship of the nurse during the time the nurse treats her patient with Therapeutic Touch.
Summary: In this case study one nurse presents her experiences while administering treatment by TT. An analysis of the themes of the interview indicates the nurse's primary experience is one of participating in opening the flow of the universal life energy in the patient and herself. The process involves (1) OPENING INTENT — allowing herself to focus on getting the universal life energy moving again, (2) OPENING SENSITIVITY — assessing the quality of its flow, and (3) OPENING COMMUNICATION — participating in a healing relationship that unblocks, engages and enlivens its movement.
For the nurse in this study, administering treatment by TT is a special way of caring for a patient. By acknowledging her patient as “openness”, i.e., a person who is always changing, growing, living, willing and healing, she chooses a treatment modality which supports this fundamental nature in her patient. Her caring stands as a challenge to traditional conceptual models about the nature of healing and person-environment relationships. In our present health care system, riddled with fragmentation, and relying heavily on technological innovation, the treatment she gives her patient may indeed be nursing's great boon.
The nurse's willingness and ability to share her inner experiences about administering treatment by TT is a very important step in building a knowledge base about this treatment modality. Up to this time, there has been a concentration on experimental research which indicates general effects of TT treatment.
Now, as more qualitiative data is collected about nurses' and patients' personal accounts of TT, professional nurses may benefit by using them as models for their own development of TT practice.
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