Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 26, Issue 7, October 2006, Pages 555-563
Nurse Education Today

Effectiveness and value of massage skills training during pre-registration nurse education

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2006.01.010Get rights and content

Summary

Background

The integration of Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) interventions into healthcare practices is becoming more popular and frequently accessed by patients. Various disciplines have integrated CAM techniques education into the preparation of their practitioners in response to this, but this varies widely, as does its success. Students’experiences of such education in pre-registration is largely unknown in the UK, and methods by which to successful achieve effective learning within this arena are largely unreported within the literature.

Aims and objectives

This study highlighted three specifics aims; to examine the perspectives of pre-registration nursing students on being taught massage skills during pre-registration nurse education; to identify the learning and development that occurs during massage skills training; and to identify methods of enhancing the provision of such skills training and its experience.

Conclusion

This paper demonstrates the value of integrating complementary therapies into nurse education, developing the holistic approach of student nurses and their concept of caring. In addition it contributes significantly to the knowledge base of the effectiveness of the value of CAM education in nurse preparation, highlighting the high value students place on CAM education and demonstrating notable development in the preparation of holistic practitioners. The method utilised also yielded ways to improve the delivery of such education, and demonstrates how creative teaching methods can motivate and enhance effective learning.

Introduction

The role of the nurse is ever evolving with the widening ranges of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) being accessed and used by society today (Stuttard and Walker, 2000). Nurse education needs to mirror such developments through developing curriculae that embrace the needs of society and those of practitioners. In addition, nurse education should always seek new methods and experiences that will provide the student with perspectives on health and caring which cannot be taught by conventional methods and processes, but rather developed and experienced through participation. Such experiences may not be readily available on placement or through classroom experiences. One method of achieving this in contemporary nurse education is the inclusion of CAM education in pre-registration nurse education through a process of experiential learning supported by relevant theory and practice. This paper seeks to begin clarifying the relevance of CAM in pre-registration nursing and the approach to its integration into nurse education. It also aims to demonstrate the value students place on CAM in their preparation for registration.

Section snippets

Literature review

Various healthcare disciplines have explored the value of CAM and its use within current preparation of practitioners (Stuttard and Walker, 2000, Richardson, 2001, Richardson, 2003). Evidence exists to demonstrate that its use in contemporary practice is limited in areas, mainly due to a lack of availability of information on its use (Owen and Fang, 2003). Therefore, its inclusion in educational preparation of professionals may be beneficial in overcoming this. While healthcare professionals

Aims

Three specific aims were identified for the research:

  • (1)

    To examine the perspectives of pre-registration nursing students on being taught massage skills during pre-registration nurse education.

  • (2)

    To identify the learning and development that occurs during massage skills training.

  • (3)

    To identify methods of enhancing the provision of massage skills training and its experience within pre-registration nurse education.

These three aims would help elucidate how students perceive the learning method, how it

Methods

An action research approach was chosen to implement this study. This was considered essential to identify issues within contemporary practice and to arrive at solutions that support and inform the provision of effective learning (Dechairo-Marino et al., 2001). The rationale for this approach was to identify barriers and solutions in working towards the creation of an evidence-base with which to inform and develop practice (Sjostedt et al., 2000). Through the cyclical nature of action research,

Qualitative data results

The data from the focus groups yielded four common themes. These themes were then compared with the themes which surfaced in the opened ended responses in the questionnaires and used to support the overall theme, therefore triangulating these data as much as possible:

Discussion

The results of this study provide support for the educational method used, and the value students place on the integration of massage therapy into their education. Almost all students who responded felt that the integration of CAM such as massage therapy into their preparation, and the experiential method used, were valuable in their development as nurses. They felt this contributed to developing their ability to enhance nurse–patient interaction and achieve holism in patient care. Initially,

Conclusion

In conclusion, this study contributes to the debate on the value of integrating complementary therapies into nurse education within the UK. The results can be further used to develop the holistic approach of student nurses and their concept of caring. In view of the fact that almost five million people a year utilise CAM in the UK (Stone, 1999), this approach also provides students with an introductory background to massage as an aspect of CAM while enabling them to apply some of the

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