The Role of Physical Touch in Nursing and Nursing Education: An Integrative Review of Clinical and Psychosocial Outcomes
Prof. M. Schneider, Prof. L. Dubois, Prof. R. Keller
Abstract:
Background
Physical touch is a basic need of all people, regardless of age or life situation. It can provide
security, well-being and belonging. But negative perceived physical touch can generate
emotions such as fear, vulnerability and perceived as violations. As a consequent of the metoo movement in the fall of 2017, it’s a risk that physical contact and especially physical touch are avoided by professions where it’s central. For example, in the context of education,
studies show that sports teachers in many countries have become more cautious and avoid
having physical contact with students due not to being misinterpreted as negative touch
(Fletcher, 2013; Öhman, 2016; Piper, Garratt & Taylor, 2013).
In healthcare, caregivers who use physical touch in their work with disabled and elderly
people have also become insecure and worried that they may be misunderstood (Bergstrand,
2018). A review shows that healthcare professionals see physical touch as part of the work but
want to be the initiator of the contact, not that it should be initiated by the patients (Kelly et
al. 2018).
The use of physical touch in healthcare is also affected by the need to avoid contamination
and widespread of infections agents, a question with extra relevance in the light of the Covid
19 pandemic.
There is currently a lack of knowledge about how physical touch is experienced and used. As
a first step is to increase the knowledge and understanding of how physical touch is
experienced and used in healthcare by mapping studies explored physical touch both in daily
care but also from the perspective of nursing students. With increased knowledge, a basis for
developing interventions/teaching modules can be generated.
Objective and Review question/s
The objective of this integrative review is to summarize the knowledge regarding how
physical touch is experienced and used in healthcare by mapping studies explored physical
touch both in daily care but also from the perspective of nursing students. The research
questions are:
- How do nursing students and nurses perceive touch and the process of touching in their
professional role? - How do nursing students and nurses learn to touch?