 |
 |
Hospitals defend use of 'energy field' treatment http://www.southam.com/hamiltonspectator/news/970125/718226.html Suzanne Morrison Area hospitals are defending their use of a controversial treatment that skeptics say is quackery and without any scientific foundation. Therapeutic touch -- an unconventional technique in which one person uses their hands to heal another without ever touching them -- is being used and taught in Hamilton-area hospitals as well as many others across the country. Many practitioners are nurses who believe that by manipulating "energy fields," they can relax patients, ease disease and promote healing. The College of Nurses of Ontario, the licensing body for the nursing profession, says it's up to individual hospitals to decide whether therapeutic touch should be practised. Under the Standards of Nursing Practice, which governs the profession in Ontario, nurses may practise anything that "S promotes comfort -- by using touch, massage and stress reduction techniques." Val Vaillancourt, director of professional practice at the General and Henderson divisions of the new Hamilton Health Sciences Corp., said therapeutic touch is only used in conjunction with, and never as an alternative to, traditional medical treatments. Currently, therapeutic touch is being used on patients suffering everything from labour pain and cancer to heart disease and burns. "I'm not going to pretend I know how it works," said Vaillancourt. "I know that when I have used therapeutic touch I have yet, in 20 years, had a patient say to me they didn't feel better. "While we may not have the research to indicate this absolutely, I think as health-care professionals we have to at least investigate and, until we have that clear, not just dismiss it." That argument doesn't sit well with people like Hamilton hematologist Dr. Brian Leber, who says there is no scientific evidence to suggest therapeutic touch works. He doesn't believe its use in publicly funded hospitals can be justified simply because some patients claim it makes them feel better. "Let's take five different people who have an incurable condition and they want something to help them feel better," Leber said. "One wants therapeutic touch; one is a devout Muslim and wants to go to Mecca; one is a devout Catholic and wants to go to Lourdes; one is a brilliant artist and wants to tour the Prada in Madrid; the other is a single truck driver who wants a tour of every strip joint between Los Angeles and the Mexican border. "There is no question all these things can make people feel better, but I don't think it's the role of the health-care system to fund that." Locally, therapeutic touch is practised at the Hamilton Health Sciences Corp., which includes Henderson, General, McMaster and Chedoke hospitals, and Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. Both hospitals permit nurses to practise therapeutic touch while on duty, and have subsidized the cost of instruction in the treatment. St. Joseph's Hospital permits therapeutic touch for patients who request it, but they must arrange for an outside therapist. Dean Olson, vice-president of patient services, says while St. Joe's does not have a formal policy on therapeutic touch, the hospital would not be opposed to trained staff performing it on hospital time. "I don't think you ever waste time when you spend it with patients," Olson said. "That's why we're there." The treatment isn't yet offered at Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington, but there is a groundswell among staff on one ward who want the hospital to provide courses. Vaillancourt says while there has been little rigorous scientific research of therapeutic touch, that's not sufficient reason to prohibit its use in publicly funded hospitals because it's not harmful or invasive. Dr. Gordon Guyatt, an expert on evidence-based medicine and professor of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics in the faculty of health sciences at McMaster University, disagrees. He says scarce health-care dollars shouldn't be spent on unproven treatments. "We have shortages of nurses doing just about everything in the health-care system at this point. Could (a nurse) be doing something else that we know is useful?" Nursing students are learning therapeutic touch in courses at community colleges, such as Mohawk College, and schools of nursing in many universities across Canada. Carolyn Byrne, chair of the undergraduate nursing program at McMaster University, said therapeutic touch is discussed at McMaster but not taught. Back to the Hamilton Spectator Home Page _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ Central Supply & Services _/ _/ (Internet Training and Research) _/ _/ PO Box 57247, Jackson Stn., _/ _/ Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8P 4X1 _/ _/ John S. Walker _/ _/ Email [log in to unmask] _/ _/ _/ _/ "To Teach is to touch a life forever" _/ _/ On the Web one touch can reach so far! _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/