Caitlin Braithwaite Discusses Nurses' Perceptions of Hand Massage for Patients With Cancer

Caitlin Braithwaite, BAN, RN, OCN, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, discusses her use of hand massage in patients with cancer, and what her fellow nurses thought of the implementation.

Braithwaite implemented hand massage for patients with cancer to help ease their anxiety. Before the start of this project, she polled nurses in her center on their perspective toward hand massage and the benefits it could offer their patients and ended up with mixed reviews. However, after she taught the modality of hand massage and implemented the practice, she saw significant improvements in all of the areas of her survey, including the potential of hand massage to improve nurse practice, patient practice, and patient anxiety.