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ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Context * Some acute and long-term care facilities are instituting massage therapy programs to support their patients' health, healing, and quality of life. Evaluation of the impact of these programs from the perspective of patients, providers, and therapists is important for administrative decision making and the design of future outcomes research.
Objective * To uncover and elucidate a range of patient outcomes of a therapeutic massage program within an acute care setting.
Design * Descriptive and qualitative evaluation. Surveys and narrative reports were completed by 70 patients, 14 healthcare providers, and 4 massage therapists.
Setting * A large university hospital.
Patients * 113 hospitalized patients received 1 to 4 massages during the course of their hospital stay.
Intervention * Massage therapy.
Main Outcome Measures * Narrative data were coded into 8 categories (pain, sleep, tension/anxiety, body awareness, physicalfunctioning psychological support, enhancing healing, and value). Selected patient responses were included to elaborate the meanings ofthese categories.
Results * The mostfrequently identified outcomes were increased relaxation (98%), a sense of well-being (93%), and positive mood change (88%). More than two thirds of patients attributed enhanced mobility, greater energ, increased participation in treatment, and faster recovery to massage therapy. Thirty five percent stated that benefits lasted more than 1 day.
Conclusions * The study supported the value of this hospital-based massage therapy program and uncovered a range of benefits of mas
sage therapy for hospitalized patients that should be studied further.
(Altern Ther Health Med. 1999,5(4):64-71)
The back massage was a traditional therapeutic practice in the hospital routine of the past and was valued for its ability to promote relaxation, sleep, and comfort.1 With the advent of managed care and its shortened hospital stays, high-tech units, and barebones staffing, often these and other comfort modalities have been discarded. The rich heritage of healing through touch is threatened with extinction. "The therapeutic use of the hands ... is an act that we have all but forgotten in this scientific age in our adulation of things mechanical, synthetic, and frequently, antihuman," notes Dolores Krieger.2 According to White,3 "touch is often the most neglected or assaulted sense of the hospitalized client." Healthcare professionals tend to touch patients only when performing procedures.
Some acute and long-term care...