Strategies for innovative energy-based nursing practice: the Healing Touch program

The purpose of this article is to share professional knowledge, practice, and educational opportunities related to energy-based nursing in order to broaden and improve the delivery of health care services. The holistic, theory-based approach places a patient's perceived needs first, and cares for the human body as well as the spirit. Energy medicine is an intricate part of the patient's expectation for health care. Watson's transpersonal-caring-healing model is explored (Watson, 1999). This model expands the view of the person to one that embodies energy that is comprised of spirit, a universal mind, and consciousness. The North American Nurses Diagnosis Association (NANDA) recognizes energy therapy as an intervention representing a specific theory: human energy field theory (HEFT). This therapy is related to the approved nursing diagnosis of energy field disturbance 1.8 (NANDA, 1995/1996). Healing touch (HT) is an energy-based therapeutic approach to healing that emphasizes caring for the whole person based on the HEFT. It is used in the nursing profession to influence changes in the human energy system; HT affects physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. The nursing process is evident throughout the curriculum. Nurse researchers report positive patients outcomes. The holistic nursing concept of energetic healing returns nurse professionals to the essence of nursing. Spinal cord injury (SCI) nurses will benefit by increasing their knowledge and awareness of energy therapy to increase patient satisfaction and improve outcomes for persons with SCI.