Table 2 Study characteristics
From: Touch, communication and affect: a systematic review on the use of touch in healthcare professions
Authors | Year | Country | Participants | Context | Methods | Research questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adomat and Killingworth | 1994 | England | 60 nurses | Nursing (ITU) | Mixed methods Non-participant observation Semi-structured interviews | Do nurses with more than 2Â years FT experience in ITU communicate less caring touch to patients? |
Barnett | 1972 | USA | 540 patients 900 practitioners | Healthcare | Quantitative Non-participant observation | What types of touch are used in different hospital wards? What body parts are touched more often? How do age, race, sex of the toucher and touched, as well as economic and social status of the patient affect touch? |
Bjorkbækmo and Mengshoel | 2016 | Norway | 9 PT/user dyads | Physiotherapy | Qualitative Phenomenological Non-participant observation Semi-structured interviews | What is the ‘body’ being touched in PT? What is being touched like in PT? What does being touched imply in PT? |
Bundgaard et al | 2011 | Denmark | 8 patients 4 nurses | Nursing (short-term stay facilities) | Qualitative Phenomenological Participant observation Unstructured interviews Participants’ reports | How is caring touch understood by practitioners and patients? Are there differences in caring touch usage in short-term facilities, compared to long-term? |
Bunzel et al | 2020 | Denmark | 10 nurses | Nursing (ICU) | Qualitative Semi-structured interviews | How are minimally sedated patients moved? What kind of communication happens via touch? |
Caris-Verhallen et al | 1999 | Netherlands | 47 nurses | Nursing (elderly care) | Quantitative Observation of video-recorded nurse-patient encounters | To what extent do nurses use non-verbal communication? How is NVC related to VC? Is NVC related to the setting (home for the elderly) and the kind of care provided? |
Cocksedge et al | 2013 | England | 15 GPs 11 patients | General medicine | Qualitative Semi-structured interviews (doctors and patients) | How is touch used in primary care consultations? How does it change once an ongoing relationship is established? |
Consedine et al | 2016 | New Zealand | 5 osteopaths | Osteopathy | Qualitative Phenomenological Semi-structured interviews | How can the experience of being touched and touching during an osteopathic session be qualified? |
De Carvalho de Rezende et al | 2015 | Brazil | 9 nurses | Nursing | Quantitative Questionnaires Observation | What are the kinds of body language and touch gestures used by nurses to communicate with patients? |
De Luca et al | 2021 | Italy | 39 nurses | Nursing | Qualitative Workshops | How do nurses feel about interpersonal touch during nursing care? Do nurses explicitly trained on touching have different attitudes towards it than those who did not? |
De Luca et al | 2022 | Italy | 22 nurses | Nursing | Qualitative Focus groups Semi-structured interviews | How do nurses use touch as part of their practice? What kinds of valence does it have, beyond the procedural, and how can touch be effectively incorporated into holistic interventions? |
Dobson et al | 2004 | England | 31 healthcare practitioners | Care work | Qualitative Focus groups | What are carers’ awareness, attitudes, and values regarding their touch towards service users? |
Eber | 2018 | Germany | 12 care workers 5 children (11–17) | Care work (residential care) | Qualitative Participant observation | How is the agency of children and young adults in residential care produced during and through everyday practices of care involving touch? |
Edwards | 1998 | England | 7 nurses | Nursing (ICU) | Qualitative Participant observation | How do nurses use and interpret their use of touch? |
Estabrooks and Morse | 1992 | Canada | 8 nurses | Nursing (ICU) | Qualitative Interviews Workshop | How do nurses learn how to touch, and develop a touching style? How do nurses perceive touch and the process of touching? |
Gale and Hegarty | 2000 | England | 9 clients | Care work (learning disabilities) | Quantitative Non-participant observation | How do carers for people with learning disabilities use touch? What types of touch are used? Where are clients usually touched? How do clients interpret such touch? How frequently do care staff touch clients during everyday caring? Do trained nursing staff touch differently? How much touch is functional/instrumental, and how much is expressive/affective? |
Gleeson and Higgins | 2009 | Ireland | 10 nurses | Nursing (psychiatry) | Qualitative Semi-structured interviews | What are psychiatric nurses’ views and perceptions on their use of touch on people who experience mental health breakdowns? |
Hollinger and Buschmann | 1993 | USA | 100 nursing home residents 100 caregivers | Care work (elderly) | Quantitative Questionnaires | How do elderly nursing home residents and health caregivers perceive touch? What attributes influence their perception of touch? Are there differences in perception between caregivers and residents? |
Jung and Fouts | 2011 | Central Africa | 35 children | Care work | Quantitative Non-participant observation | Among Bofi foragers, what differences are there between the touch interactions between children and different caregivers? |
Karlsson et al | 2022 | Sweden | 13 nurses | Nursing (ICU) | Qualitative Semi-structured interviews | What is the meaning of the caring touch provided by ICU nurses to patients, from the perspective of the healthcare professionals themselves? |
Kelly et al | 2019 | Canada | 15 physicians | General medicine | Qualitative Phenomenological Unstructured interviews | What are physicians’ experiences of communicating via touch? How can touch be taught in a medical education curriculum? |
Kelly et al | 2020 | Canada | 6 clinicians | General medicine | Qualitative Co-operative inquiry | How do physicians experience communicative touch in clinical practice? |
Leonard and Kalman | 2015 | USA | 11 patients | Nursing (oncology) | Qualitative Phenomenological Semi-structured interviews | How do patients experience being touched when receiving chemotherapeutic treatment for cancer? |
McCann and McKenna | 1993 | Northern Ireland | 14 patients | Nursing (elderly care) | Mixed methods Semi-structured interviews Non-participant observation | What is the amount and type of touch received by elderly patients from nurses? How do patients perceive the touch that they receive? |
Mononen | 2019 | Finland | Not specified (involving both caregivers and patients) | Care work (elderly care) | Qualitative Non-participant observation Micro-interactional analysis | How do caregivers use affective touch as a resource to facilitate and stimulate socio-affective interaction? |
Morris et al | 2014 | USA | 33 OTs | Occupational therapy | Quantitative Non-participant observation OT Interaction Assessment instrument | What are the types of touch, and their frequency of utilization, deployed by OTs when providing care to users? |
Mulaik et al | 1991 | USA | 98 patients | Nursing | Quantitative Questionnaires Patient Touch Questionnaire Interpersonal Behaviour Survey | What are patients’ perceptions regarding the amount and kind of touch provided by nurses? What are patients’ beliefs and attitudes towards touch? What are their preferences and responses to touch, and how are these affected by demographic factors? |
O’Lynn and Krautscheid | 2011 | USA | 24 laypeople (no nursing training) | Nursing | Qualitative Focus groups | How do patients prefer to be touched, particularly with regard to intimate procedures? |
Pedrazza et al | 2018 | Italy | 198 nurses | Nursing | Quantitative Questionnaire | Is there an association between a nurse’s attachment style and their inclination to worry, and their feelings of comfort with touch practices? |
Pratt and Mason | 1984 | England | 76 laypeople | Healthcare | Quantitative Questionnaire | What are the intentions of a specific touch gesture in a given scenario? |
Roger et al | 2002 | USA | 15 PTs | Physiotherapy | Qualitative Observation Structured interviews using video recordings from PT’s own practice | How do physiotherapists use touch during clinical practices? What aims and meanings do different touches have? What is communicated via touch? |
Routasalo | 1996 | Finland | 94 patients 32 nurses | Nursing (elderly care) | Quantitative Non-participant observation | How often, and in what situations, do nurses use non-necessary touch on aged patients? Do the amount vary between morning and evening? Where is touch more used? Do nurses say something while touching a patient? |
Routasalo and Isola | 1996 | Finland | 30 nurses 25 patients | Nursing (elderly care) | Qualitative Semi-structured interviews | What do nurses experience when touching elderly patients? How do elderly patients experience being touched? |
Routasalo and Isola | 1998 | Finland | 5 nurse/patient dyads | Nursing (elderly care) | Qualitative Phenomenological Non-participant observation | How do skilled nurses in long-term care touch elderly patients who have lost verbal communication ability? |
Salzmann-Erikson and Eriksson | 2005 | Sweden | 4 patients | Nursing (psychiatry) | Qualitative Phenomenological Semi-structured interviews | What are the meanings of touch for patients who have been hospitalised for psychosis? |
Tarantino et al | 2018 | Italy | 21 patients 14 nurses | Nursing (medicine and surgery) | Qualitative Phenomenological Semi-structured interviews | What are the uses and characteristics of touch in nursing? What are the perceptions, feelings and experiences of both nurses and patients in a touch encounter? |