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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Toward a theory of touch: the touching process and acquiring a touching style.

Methods of grounded theory were used to explore the questions: How do intensive care nurses perceive touch and the process of touching? How do intensive care nurses learn to touch? Data were collected by in-depth interviews with eight experienced intensive care nurses from the same intensive care unit of a large urban Canadian hospital. Findings revealed two substantive processes, the touching process and acquiring a touching style, neither of which has been previously reported. The stages and phases of these processes are described as well as cueing, the core variable. Based on the data analysis, touch was conceptualized as a gestalt with multiple dimensions, suggesting that valid operational definitions of touch must incorporate more than skin-to-skin contact.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

The right to touch and be touched.

Touching is an integral part of human behaviour; from the moment of birth until they die, people need to be touched and to touch others. Touching is an intimate action that implies an invasion of the individual's personal, private space. In ethical terms, the question of touching is closely related to the patient's right to integrity and inviolability. The purpose of this study was to describe touching as it is experienced by elderly patients and nurses in long-term care. Touching was approached as a form of communication and as an important part of nursing practice. The participants, 25 patients and 30 nurses, were interviewed using a semistructured schedule. The data were analysed using the method of content analysis. The patients experienced touching by nurses as gentle, comforting and important. The nurses, for their part, experienced touching by patients as easy and natural. The patients rarely touched nurses more than was necessary. In some cases, nurses had to cope with violent touching by patients. Some women nurses interpreted touches by male patients as having a sexual nature and as annoying. This had taught male patients to avoid touching nurses. On the other hand, friendly and grateful touches by patients were very important to nurses. When used for emotional purposes only, touching presupposed a good relationship between nurses and their patients. Although touching is extremely common in nursing practice, there has been very little research into its meaning. More work is therefore needed to explore the role and meaning of touching in nursing.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Some touching situations: the relationship between gender and contextual variables in cardiovascular responses to human touch.

This study examined how cardiovascular reactivity to human touch is affected by the social context of the situation. Context for a ten-second touch was manipulated for 61 male and 64 female undergraduate participants in three ways: professional touch, were participants were touched on the wrist to have their pulse taken; social touch, an unexplained touch to the same area of the arm; and a no-touch control, where participants were told their pulse was being taken automatically without being touched. Social context was also manipulated by employing both same-sex and opposite-sex touch experimenters. In the professional touch and no-touch conditions, participants' heart rate and blood pressure decreased overall; however, in the social touch condition initial increases were observed for both measures. Female experimenters produced greater heart rate decreases than male experimenters. The greatest cardiovascular increases were found with women being touched by men in the social condition. These data suggest that both context and gender are important contextual factors in determining cardiovascular reactivity.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Localization of a constant-touch and moving-touch stimulus in the hand: a preliminary study.

There are limited normative data available defining a subject's ability to localize a constant-touch or moving-touch stimulus. The results that are obtainable to date have not been objectively measured so that they are reproducible. This study of a normal population suggests a standard to measure the error in a patient's capacity to localize both a constant-touch and a moving-touch stimulus. The normative data demonstrate that in considering the ability to localize a constant-touch stimulus, there was less error of localization in the fingers than in the palm. The most sensitive finger was the index. In testing for localization of a moving-touch stimulus, seven types of responses were identified and classified. The procedure outlined in this study offers a means both to document the degree of sensory impairment in a more consistent manner and to objectively measure results of early-phase sensory re-education.

Adult↗
PubMed2002

MTD-1, a touch-cell-specific membrane protein with a subtle effect on touch sensitivity.

We have used representational difference analysis (RDA) applied to cDNA to isolate transcripts regulated by MEC-3, a transcription factor needed for the differentiation of the six touch receptor neurons in Caenorhabditis elegans. Six percent of 595 cDNAs isolated by cDNA RDA were mec-3-dependent. These cDNAs represented mRNA from two previously known genes, mec-18 and mec-7, and one new gene, mtd-1 (mec-three-dependent). mtd-1 encodes a novel transmembrane protein that is exclusively expressed in the six touch cells throughout development. mtd-1 loss results in a subtle defect in the touch receptor neurons. Neither mtd-1 RNAi nor a putative mtd-1 loss-of-function mutation resulted in touch insensitivity, but both enhanced the touch insensitivity of mec-6(u247), a temperature sensitive allele, at the permissive temperature.

Alleles↗
PubMed2002

'Kiss, cuddle, squeeze': the experiences and meaning of touch among parents of children with autism attending a Touch Therapy Programme.

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and meaning of touch between parents and children with autism before and after attending a Touch Therapy Programme. The sample comprised 12 parents (1 father and 11 mothers) of children (1 female and 11 male) with autism. Parents were interviewed before and immediately after the 8-week programme. Pre-programme results suggested that children were controlling the experience of touch. Parents felt 'hurt' in response to the 'aloof nature of autism, and natural parenting instincts (e.g. spontaneous cuddles) were restricted. Post-programme results suggested that children appeared to tolerate touch. Parents reported that routine tasks (e.g. dressing) were accomplished more easily and that children appeared generally more relaxed. Parents reported feeling 'closer' to their children and felt that the touch therapy had opened a communication channel between themselves and their children.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Comparison of therapeutic touch and casual touch in stress reduction of hospitalized children.

PURPOSE: To compare the effectiveness of therapeutic touch and causal touch for stress reduction of hospitalized children aged 2 weeks to 2 years old. METHODOLOGY: Stress reduction was measured by pulse, peripheral skin temperature, and galvanic skin response as observed on the GSR-II biofeedback instrument. RESULTS: An ANOVA measured effectiveness of the interventions of causal touch and therapeutic touch at 3 and 6 minute intervals. The results demonstrated a significant difference with the critical value of F = 4.18 p less than .05. The computed value of F = 26.98 at 3 minutes and F = 26.94 at 6 minutes. CONCLUSION: Therapeutic touch reduced time needed to calm children after stressful experiences.

Child, Hospitalized↗
PubMed2002

Touch, awareness of touch, and compliance with a request.

In certain situations it has been shown that touch has a positive effect on the compliance with a request expressed by a stranger. However, the difference between the effect of touch on request compliance between people who had noticed and those who had not noticed this contact has never been taken into account. In this experiment a female confederate asked 227 women to answer a questionnaire. When asking for their collaboration the forearm was or was not touched for a brief period of 1 to 2 seconds. Analysis showed that touch was associated with significantly higher compliance to the request but no difference was found between subjects who had noticed the tactual contact and subjects who had not noticed.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Should nurses practice therapeutic touch? Should nursing schools teach therapeutic touch? .

This article argues that in the current setting of nursing practice, therapeutic touch should be treated as a religious practice. The article examines the religious sources of the ideas and documents the connection with the teachings of particular religious groups. Recognizing therapeutic touch as a religious issue requires new kinds of approaches in the practice and teaching of therapeutic touch in nursing.

Curriculum↗
PubMed2002

Touching the fragile baby: looking at touch in the special care nursery (SCN).

This article will briefly demonstrate that touch promotes bonding and well-being and is therefore an essential therapy for the benefit of parents, babies, and health care professionals. Guideline suggestions for the safe introduction of touch therapy are presented. The author acknowledges that her own work practice has been positively influenced after conducting this investigation into touch and the pre-term infant.

Holistic Nursing↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Touching with intent: using therapeutic touch.

Nurses have always used touch in their care. Therapeutic Touch describes using touch with an intent to help. It offers nurses the opportunity to develop another dimension in their care.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

Intraoperative evaluation of axillary sentinel lymph nodes using touch imprint cytology and immunohistochemistry: I. Protocol of rapid immunostaining of touch imprints.

AIMS: Sentinel Node Biopsy (SNB) is considered an accurate method of detecting axillary lymph node status in patients with small breast cancer. Combined with an accurate and rapid histopathology tool, it could spare this group of patients unnecessary Axillary Node Clearance (ANC) with its associated hazards. Intraoperative examination of SNB for cancer cells has been investigated using both Frozen Sections (FS) and Imprint Cytology (IC) stained with different stains. This study is devoted to establish a reliable and rapid protocol for immunostaining of touch imprints from SNB. METHODS: We investigated two different EPOS (Enhanced Polymer One-Step staining--DAKO) anticytokeratin antibodies, five different tissue fixatives and different incubation periods and temperatures with both positive and negative controls. RESULTS: We have developed a protocol, which produced good and consistent immunostaining of touch imprints. The initial results using this protocol are concordant with those of permanent Haematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) sections. CONCLUSIONS: We propose this protocol for rapid immunostaining of touch imprints of SNB.

Antibodies↗
PubMed1997

Touching what is, touching what might be.

How do you master change? You have to master the paradox of changing while staying grounded. To make use of the power living inside any new thing that comes your way, you first have to touch it--not tentatively but profoundly--at the same time that you maintain a firm connection with that which is deepest and most fundamental within you. Here, some ideas on how to create "touch points," the ability to look at a problem or impending change from many different angles, thus broadening your understanding and possible response. A key tactic in creating a variety of touch points is quite simple: Ask a lot of questions. Ask especially the questions that have difficult answers, or for which you suspect there is no answer.

Decision Making, Organizational↗
PubMed2001

Arthropod touch reception: spider hair sensilla as rapid touch detectors.

Wandering spiders like Cupiennius salei are densely covered by tactile hairs. In darkness Cupiennius uses its front legs as tactile feelers. We selected easily identifiable hairs on the tarsus and metatarsus which are stimulated during this behavior to study tactile hair properties. Both the mechanical and electrophysiological hair properties are largely independent of the direction of hair displacement. Restoring torques measure 10(-9) to 10(-8) Nm. The torsional restoring constant S changes non-linearly with deflection angle. It is of the order of 10(-8) Nm/rad, which is about 10,000 times larger than for trichobothria. Angular thresholds for the generation of action potentials are ca.1 degrees. Electrophysiology reveals a slow and a fast sensory cell, differing in adaptation time. Both cells are movement detectors mainly responding to the dynamic phase (velocity) of a stimulus. When applying behaviorally relevant stimulus velocities (up to 11 cm s(-1)) threshold deflection for the elicitation of action potentials and maximum response frequency are reached as early as 1.2 ms after stimulus onset and followed by a rapid decline of impulse frequency. Obviously these hairs inform the spider on the mere presence of a stimulus but not on details of its time-course and spatial orientation.

Action Potentials↗