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When Carol Baldwin, PhD, RN, CHTP, CT, AHN-BC, offered basic healing touch at a recent health fair, a line of primarily Latino fair-goers waiting for a treatment snaked “a mile long,” she says.

With practiced hands, the associate professor for nursing at the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Innovation in Phoenix, scanned their energy fields by moving her hands over their bodies, smoothing their energy fields as needed with her hands hovering above their bodies, then grounding them with a direct touch on their feet. She then reviewed with them where she sensed energy imbalances and what that might mean.

The long line for treatment didn’t surprise her. She has found that when she presents healing touch to Latino or Native American populations they embrace the concept because of its similarities to folk practices.

However, when Baldwin presents healing touch to college nursing students she incorporates slides on the historical roots in a variety of cultures. She references the theoretical underpinnings of Martha Rogers’ science of unitary human beings model and Jean Watson’s theory of human caring. She points out possible nursing applications for relaxation and pain management.

She mentions Wilkinson’s study on the effect of healing touch on secretory IgA, which is a rough measure of the immune system.

“This particular study, while there were some flaws, did find that healing touch did show an increase in secretory IgA, which is what you want,” she explains.

Baldwin presents healing touch in this way to nursing students because she wants them to approach integrative health care from an evidence-based standpoint. She and nursing dean Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN, FNAP, co-authored a chapter on evidence-based practice in holistic nursing in the upcoming fifth edition of “Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice.” In the chapter, the first of its kind in the handbook, they explain how to perform a literature search and how to critically review articles.

Baldwin says it is important for nurses to understand and critically review the evidence on integrative medicine, even if they do not incorporate any of the modalities into practice. They need to “start finding out more information so they can inform their patients as to the pros and cons,” she says.

Growing Interest

The demand for complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) — often referred to as integrative healthcare by practitioners who use the methods in conjunction with conventional medicine — is high nationwide.
According to a 2002 survey of more than 31,000 adults by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), part of the National Institutes of Health, 36 percent of participants used some sort of CAM for conditions ranging from insomnia to back pain the last 12 months, while more than 49% had used CAM at some point in their lives.

When prayer for healing is added to the mix, those study numbers jump to 62 percent and 74 percent, respectively. Use of peppermint was cited by 11.8% of adults who reported use of natural products. More than a quarter of respondents using CAM did so at the suggestion of conventional medical professionals.
The study included biologically based products such as herbs, energy medicine like healing touch, manipulative and body-based practices, mind-body medicine, and whole medical systems.

Integrating CAM Into Practice

Pam Barich, RN, MS, CNS, CHTP, HN-BC, uses healing touch in her private counseling practice in Glorieta, NM, to aid the natural healing process.

“My experience has been that emotional issues may correspond to a block in an individual’s energy field and that a release may bring it into balance,” she says.
Barich also has allied health professional privileges to use healing touch at a local hospital. After healing touch, patients generally indicate an increase in relaxation and a decrease in pain.

Barich suggests that nurses interested in any complementary modality read up on it, then become certified, if possible.

Holistic Nursing

Holistic nursing has come a long way since the founding in 1981 of the American Holistic Nurses Association. In 2006, the American Nursing Association recognized holistic nursing as a specialty. AHNA has created standards of practice for holistic nursing, which is built upon the concept of treating the whole patient, not just their diagnosis, taking into account the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit.
“[Holistic nursing] really is a shift in the way one thinks and processes,” says Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, a founding member of AHNA. She is currently director of Holistic Nursing Consultants, based in Santa Fe, NM, and an author or co-author of several books on holistic nursing.

Dossey emphasizes that “when we speak of holistic nursing and complementary and alternative therapies, it’s not an either/or — it’s a both/and. We can simultaneously incorporate [traditional and complementary methods] together.”

For example, combining integrative techniques with conventional medicine in pain management can boost the positive outcome for patients.

“When people are in pain, they hold onto tension and tightness. They can literally — it doesn’t matter how powerful the medication is — they can block their response to that pain medicine if they don’t think it’s going to work and they’re really tense and tight,” Dossey says.

By integrating simple breathing and imagery techniques when administering pain medication, nurses can help patients relax and make the conventional medicine more effective, she says.

“I would say, ‘I just want you to take a deep breath and really begin to feel yourself relaxing as this pain medicine now is going into your bloodstream and is helping you relax and it is getting there very quickly to relieve this pain,” Dossey says.

She believes all nurses have an inherent holistic perspective.

“Florence Nightingale clearly articulated that nursing is an art and a science. Most of the emphasis in modern medicine is on the science. How quickly can we do protocols and treatments?” Dossey says. “But, truly, the finest of nursing is blending in the art, which is the holistic perspective.”

More Information on Alternative Medicine

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
http://nccam.nih.gov/
Includes links to research, clinical trials, training, as well as general information about CAM.

American Holistic Nurses Association
www.ahna.org/home/home.html
The organization site includes links to standards of practice, position statements, credentialing information, descriptions of different healing modalities, and journal reviews.

University of Minnesota Center for Spirituality and Healing
www.csh.umn.edu/modules/index.html
Online modules for health professionals give an overview of various complementary therapies including aromatherapy and healing touch.

Healing Touch International, Inc.
www.healingtouchinternational.org
Includes research – much of it done by nurses – publications, and certification information.

Nurse Healers - Professional Associates International
www.therapeutic-touch.org
Official therapeutic touch Website includes standards, policies and procedures, and scope of practice.

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Anne Federwisch is a freelance writer. To comment on this article e-mail editorSW@nurseweek.com.

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