How prevalent is Therapeutic Touch in nursing schools?

[immoderate]

I got the impression from some EMT friends here in south Florida that nursing schools require a course in Therapeutic Touch. So I called a friend in Woodstock, who has been a nursing teacher. She laughed it off, saying that some nursing schools offer it as elective. She said that nurses these days don't have time to get out from behind the computer.

So how much emphasis do nursing schools put on teaching Therapeutic Touch?

--imm

[uppityperson]

1. wayyyy back in the 70's we didn't do anything like that.

backrubs, yes, but not TT. Massage school offered either TT or Reiki though.

[Heddi]

2. I was in Nursing School from 2004-2006

and the only Therapeutic Touch we talked about was holding someone's hand during a painful or stressful procedure, giving a backrub to a bed-ridden patient, etc.

NEVER this huckster bullshit Aura Shifting quackery. NEVER NEVER NEVER.

It saddens me that the ANA or whatever the large collective of nurses is called, actually kind of supports this stuff. There are religious-based hospitals that encourage the use of Therapeutic Touch, as in the laying of hands and other bullshit malarkey like that.

As an RN, I would run screaming from any other practitioner that used this bullshit. Firstly, there is no scientific proof that Therapeutic Touch (in the laying of hands, auras, and chakras sense) does anything positive. Secondly, RN's are bound to operate under Evidence Based PRactice. That means we don't do something because that's the way it's always been done, or because we THINK it's the best thing to do....we do things because they are based, through scientific experiement and evidence, to have benefit to the patient.

If I ever came across a nurse doing Laying of Hands or Therapeutic Bullshit Healing Shyster Shit I would write such a scathing letter to the licensing board suggeting that their license be revoked or investigated so fast their healing head would spin like a top.

If they are that BLIND to such nonsense, such un-scientificly based nonsense, what other non-evidence based practices are they subjecting their patients to? Drinking urine to flush toxins? Ear candles to remove negative thoughts?

That shit is bullshit and anyone who practices should not be allowed to be called a NURSE, registered or otherwise. They are an embarassment to the profession and should get into Naturopathy or Hypnosis if they're into that bullshit.

[mr blur]

3. So... you're not in favour of it, then?

[Heddi]

4. Listen here, Goatboy

don't make me therapeutic touch you upside the head!!! :D

[immoderate]

5. Thanks.

Keep up the good work. :)

--imm

[Warpy]

6. That's how it was in the early 80s, too

Touch was used as a way to establish contact, build trust.

I did have one instructor who was into the New Age stuff, but didn't require the rest of us to buy it.

I also knew fellow nurses who bought into the bullshit but didn't require anybody else to buy it--they knew better. If they did that hand waving jive, they did it surreptitiously and it didn't hurt anybody, so I didn't bother writing them up.

However, if I'd ever run across one of them doing a sales job to a patient, you can bet I would have been writing him/her up so fast the paper would scorch.

[uppityperson]

9. I took a TT class in massage school, required, that or Reiki

so fine. I could feel warm spots, and differences, but never could figure out wtf waving my hands around would do. Or why it would do anything. Yes, a body's temperature is NOT the same all over but so what? However, I do hold hands with people (as a nurse) and do massages (as a nurse and massage therapist) but I don't "do" energy work as it never seems right.

Why should I feel I have any reason to mess with anyone else's "energy fields"? I mean, really. If I believed in that, I would also believe that each of us has the power within ourselves to heal ourselves (so they teach) so why the hell would I mess with someone else? Seems like they want it both ways.

I have been told by energy "massage therapists" that I am mundane. That I lack a certain "something". And that I could make more money if I worked more in "energy work". Charlatans

[onager]

7. Thanks for asking, IMM. I wondered about this too.

A quick Google found this pretty funny note about the Colorado Board of Nursing. The CBN allowed a lot of alt-med crap as Continuing Education (CE) in the early 90's. Then one of those damn skeptics showed up, who was an RN herself:

With tongue-in-cheek humor, Linda Rojas, RN (Rocky Mt Skeptic, Mar-Apr, 1992), describes a heart attack victim in front of a nurses convention who is set upon by nurses plying the techniques they have learned in CE.

Some wave their hands over the victim (Therapeutic Touch), another grabs your pinky finger and pushes on your tailbone (acupressure), another flashes angel and animal guide cards (shamanism), others use crystals and colored lights.

She also describes nurses as tending to be religious and superstitious in their eagerness to help patients, as well as poorly trained in statistical analysis and the scientific method.

The CBN uses only mundane criteria such as having written learning objectives, questions, and handout materials with no attention to scientific validity of course content. Further, there are no caveats issued to CE students that a buyer beware situation exists for nursing CE. Rojas points out that CE ultimately affects nursing care which makes quality control within CE a consumer issue.

http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-9262076_ITM

Wiki has a pretty good write-up, including the famous experiment where an 11-year-old disproved TT:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therapeutic_touch

[immoderate]

8. Thanks for the links.

I was aware of the JAMA study. Quite an accomplishment for an 11 year old.

My friend did mention that NYU was a hotbed of TT. The wiki article explains why.

Also, I am reminded of a sister of another friend, who teaches nursing, and was OK with all the alt/med modalities. We had a few arguments, to which she said that she supports whatever promotes the healing process. The placebo effect is real.

--imm

[JitterbugPerfume]

10. Y'all try to touch MY therapeutic

and I'll break your fingers!:silly: