A touch is an inseparable part of the mutual contact between a nurse and a patient.The more a patient depends on the assistance of the others in common daily activities, the more a nurse uses physical contact in the care, not only in relation to the professional ortherapeutic acts, but also to the expression of compassion, sympathy, encouragement or calming a patient.Despite the fact that a touch is so important in patient care, it only receives a marginal attention.The goal of the thesis was to examine the reasons for and the obstacles to the application of a touch in nursing care, and if a touch belongs to the present nursing care.Research questions were set to achieve the goals:How do nurses perceive a touch in the present nursing care?How do patients perceive a nurse's touch in the treatment?Three hypotheses were formulated in dependence on the above set goals:H1:Nurses perceive a touch more as a part of the direct (physical)care than a therapeutic intervention.H2:Nurses rather use a touch as an unintentional method than as an intentional therapeutic intervention.H3:Nurses use a touch rather intuitively, not realizing the risk that a touch can be perceived negatively.The theoretical part of the thesis was elaborated on the base of literature sources.The empiric part was implemented on the base of a qualitative and quantitative research.The data for the qualitative research was gained by means of semi-structured interviews with ten patients.A questionnaire research for general nurses was used for the data collection in the quantitative research.On the base of the results the hypotheses were evaluated as follows:H1 Nurses perceive a touch more as a part of the direct (physical) care than a therapeutic intervention unconfirmed.H2:Nurses rather use a touch as an unintentional method than as an intentional therapeutic intervention unconfirmed.H3:Nurses use a touch rather intuitively, not realizing the risk that a touch can be perceived negatively unconfirmed. It is obvious from the results we achieved in the research that a touch has been and will always be an inseparable part of the mutual relation between a nurse and a patient.The research has shown that nurses perceive a touch as a part of the direct care as well as a therapeutic intervention.And if nurses use a touch as a therapeutic intervention, they do it intentionally, mostly to build confidence, to calm a patient, to create the feeling of safety, certainty and understanding.More than a half of the nurses replied that they used a touch instinctively, not realizing that they are touching the patient, on the other hand, more than a half of the nurses replied that they cared about at what points a patient perceived a touch negatively.Although the nurses replied that a therapeutic touch was not time consuming, it is not applied frequently in the therapeutic care.The research has also shown that patients accept a touch within the care and they accept it resignedly.When nurses touch patients, the patients are glad if such a touch is accompanied by words.The interviews revealed that a nurse should not underestimate a handshake at the first contact, as patients perceive this act as a feeling of interest and creation of confidence.The research shows indisputably that a touch is a very important holistic nursing interventionin patient care. It has confirmed that although a touch and its perception is something so intimate, individual and indispensable in nursing care, it only receives a marginal attention.This thesis might serve as study material for numerous nurses, so that a touch is used as an effective intervention by a nurse that perceives a patient as a holistic being and has a sympathy for him/her in his/her uneasy life situation.This thesis might initialize a more extended research combining more research methods.An application of hidden observation for deeper understanding of the use of a touch in nursing care might be particularly interesting.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:nusl.cz/oai:invenio.nusl.cz:364728 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | HYNKOVÁ, Miroslava |
| Source Sets | Czech ETDs |
| Language | Czech |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
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