The Effect of Hand Reflexology on Pain, Skin Temperature and Nursing Practice

입원 환자에서 손 반사요법의 통증, 피부체온 및 간호실무 효과

Purpose: This study is aimed to examine the effectiveness on pain, feeling and nursing practice of hand reflexology applied to in-patient in the clinical setting. Method: The pre/post test methods using VAS for pain and feeling, physiologic measuring, and questionnaire of nursing care were conducted. Subjects were selected 45 in-patients from a surgical ward in hospitals during Nov.-Dec. 2005. 5 minute hand reflexology therapy was applied to both hands of participant by two research assistants at the same time. Data were analyzed based on SAS program using frequency, $x^2$-test, paired t-test, ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Result: 1. After receiving hand reflexology therapy, the subjects showed significant pain relief(t=-4.94, p=.0001), improvement in feeling(t=19.44, p=0001) and an increase in skin temperature(t=3.54, p=.001). 2. The applied skills that the participants preferred were press-rotate(80.0%), press-walk(35.56%) and press-rolling(31.11%). The effectiveness of nursing practice scored $3.99{\pm}1.97$ out of 5. Nurse-Patient Relationship and effective response of nursing intervention ranked the highest 4.31. Conclusion: Hand reflexology was considered as an effective nursing intervention in the clinical settings, but in order to evaluate re-verifies and reliances for this effects, it is necessary that comparative studies should be conducted.