NURSE-PATIENT INTERACTION: OBSERVATIONS OF TOUCH.
Contributors: University of Alberta.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 244
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: In this study, the interactions between nurses and patients in an acute oncology unit were examined in order to develop a method and instrument for the description of nurse-patient touch. Videotaped interactions with eight cancer patients and the nurses that cared for them and open-ended interviews with 14 participants were the major source of data. Using ethological methods, an observational schedule was developed from detailed descriptions of selected touching interactions. A purposeful sample of 56 interactions and a random sample of 60 interactions that included touch events were coded using a continuous sampling method. Acceptable levels of inter- and intraobserver agreement were established and maintained throughout the coding process with the exception of nurse activity and intensity of touch.

Five kinds of touch were identified in this study: comforting touch, connecting touch, working touch, orienting touch, and social touch. These touches are comparable to the two major kinds of nurse-patient touch previously identified in the literature. However, detailed qualitative and quantitative descriptions of these types of touch and the variations in associated verbal and nonverbal behaviours that accompany each type of touch provide more comprehensive descriptions than has previously been available. In particular, the use of connecting touch, orienting touch, and social touch have not been well recognized or described.

In this study, the four types of attending identified--doing more, doing with, doing for, and doing tasks--represent the types of attending used by nurses caring for cancer patients during interactions that involve touch. Patterns of touch were found to vary depending on type(s) of attending used during interactions with patients, which supports the premise that the interactional context in which touch is embedded is a critical factor in understanding the use of touch.

Touch and touching are complex phenomenon which form an important aspect of nursing practice. The development of prescriptive and predictive nursing theory regarding the use of touch depends on the development of a thorough understanding of touch interventions. However, the lack of attention to the complexities inherent in describing touching and being touched and the interactional context in which touch occurs has retarded progress. The contribution of this study to existing touch research is the development of a method and a valid and reliable observational schedule that can be used to study touch which fills this gap.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-12, Section: B, page: 6217.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA (CANADA), 1992.

School code: 0351.