The effect of education on nursing personnel's knowledge and attitudes regarding the use of integrative care techniques with hospice and palliative care patients.

PURPOSE: To examine the effect of education on nursing personnel's knowledge and attitudes regarding the use of hand massage, breathing techniques, and essential oils with hospice and palliative care patients. BACKGROUND: Unrelieved, end of life pain is common among hospitalized patients on hospice and palliative care units. Integrative care techniques such as hand massage, breathing techniques, and essential oils can be available to use with these individuals. Nursing personnel are often unaware of other techniques that are not a traditional pharmacology approach to pain. METHODS: A quasi-experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of an educational intervention on nursing personnel's knowledge and attitudes regarding the use of three integrative care techniques (hand massage, breathing techniques, and essential oils) with hospice and palliative care patients in an acute care setting. Data on knowledge and attitudes were collected pre- and postintervention. RESULTS: Following the intervention, improvements in nursing personnel's attitudes and knowledge toward the use of the three techniques were found. CONCLUSION: Results of this study suggest that education of nursing personnel may positively influence knowledge and attitudes toward providing hand massage, breathing techniques, and essential oil for end of life patients.

Essential Oil Use With Breast Imaging A Pilot Study.

Purpose: To examine the following variables related to essential oil use: familiarity, enjoyment, influence on relaxation, intention for future use, and acceptance among women undergoing breast-imaging procedures. Design: A descriptive, exploratory study. Method: An investigator-designed questionnaire was used to gather demographic information and study variables (N = 51). Data on age and scheduled procedure were collected. Data collected on essential oils included choice, anxiety, acceptance, familiarity, relaxation response, enjoyment with use, and intention to use in the future. Acceptance of essential oils was derived from the prompt included on the questionnaire "please tell us the reason you accepted the Essential Oil today." Findings: Enjoyment with essential oils was high 97.9% (n = 48), 76% (n = 38) were familiar with their use, a majority 94% (n = 48) of participants experienced some degree of relaxation following their use, and 94% (n = 46) would continue their use in the future. Acceptance of essential oils was based largely on familiarity with their use. Conclusions: A majority of participants in this study enjoyed essential oils, were familiar with their use, experienced relaxation following use, and intended to use them in the future when undergoing breast-imaging procedures.