The effects of Healing Touch on the coping ability, self esteem and general health of undergraduate nursing students

Abstract

The study used a mixed methodology to investigate the effects of HealingTouch (HT) on the coping ability, self esteem and general health of undergraduate nursing students to: check the veracity of claims made by HT practitioners that the therapy is effective in reducing stress; monitor the effects of HTon participants' scores using instruments which measure coping, self esteem and general health; and compare objective data with subjective accounts relating to coping, self esteem and general health. Quantitative findings showed no effects of HT on the coping ability, self esteem and general health of first year students, but there were some slight effects for the third year students who were in the experimental group. Qualitative findings showed that all participants in the experimental group found the experience positive. However, conclusions may be drawn tentatively that HT is effective while acknowledging that this project's design may have been ineffective in measuring the effects of HT, as the questionnaire may not have tested the actual effects of the therapy, and objective measures may be inadequate for exploring subjective experiences such as HT.