Reducing anxiety: the employment of Therapeutic Touch as a nursing intervention

Patient anxiety is frequently associated with admission and treatment in Critical Care Units. In Critical Care, one aim is the promotion of comfort so that anxiety experienced by patients can be reduced. In this article, a quasi-experimental design which attempted to determine the effectiveness of Therapeutic Touch as a nursing intervention is described. It was hypothesized that Therapeutic Touch would promote comfort and reduce anxiety. Before implementation of the project, a semi-structured interview was conducted amongst nurses (n = 18) from an Intensive Care Unit in a District General Hospital in East London. Interviews were conducted in order to determine the nurses' perceptions of the effectiveness of Therapeutic Touch as a complementary therapy. Initial findings of nurse interviews, a nurse's personal experiences of administering Therapeutic Touch and a case study indicate there may be a place for Therapeutic Touch as an intervention for promoting comfort and reducing anxiety in Critical Care.