What clinical aromatherapy can bring to patients : Exploring its potential for nursing care

Abstract

Clinical aromatherapy aims to alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life through the psychological and pharmacological effects of essential oils and the physiological effects of touch through aromatherapy massage, thereby enhancing the patient’s self-healing ability, restoring health, and maintaining comfort. In Europe and the United States, clinical aromatherapy has already been introduced in nursing care, and is used for psychological support, such as reducing anxiety and fear, and for alleviating physical symptoms such as pain and fatigue. In Japan, however, although recognized as a means of “healing,” it is not officially recognized as nursing care, and is currently practiced at the discretion of individual medical institutions and nurses. With the inevitable increase in the number of chronically ill patients and the elderly, it is expected that care as well as treatment will become increasingly important in the future. Therefore, conventional nursing care alone will be limited, and nurses will be required to learn a wider range of nursing care methods. Clinical aromatherapy will be a useful form of care for nurses as well as patients.