Palliative Care Research
Online ISSN : 1880-5302
ISSN-L : 1880-5302
Clinical Practice Report
Participation of the Nurses Who Are Certified Aromatherapist in Palliative Care Team and Their Offering Aromatherapy Massage to Cancer Patients in the General Ward
Yumi KameiYayoi KitamuraMari HaratakeKazuko FujiwaraHiromi OkamuraSeitetsu KanemuraNorifumi Kishimoto
Author information
JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTML

2017 Volume 12 Issue 2 Pages 923-927

Details
Abstract

Purposes: This report describes our activities of performing aromatherapy massage for cancer patients in the general ward. Methods: The number of patients, sex, age, aroma treatment times, outcome, disease type, performance status (PS), treatment phase, symptoms, massage site, and oil type were investigated using the clinical records from March 2014 to March 2016. Results: Aromatherapy massage was performed for 116 patients a total of 301 times. With regard to the final outcome, 50 patients were moved to the palliative care unit (PCU), whereas 49 patients died in the general ward. The main symptoms were general malaise, edema, pain, and anxiety. The popular massage sites were lower limbs, back, and upper limbs. The preferred oils were citrus and relaxation-inducing type. Discussion: By joining the palliative care team, certified aromatherapy nurses were allowed to perform the aromatherapy massage on more patients in the general ward than before. The need for aromatherapy massage was found not only in terminally ill patients but also in chemotherapy patients with good PS. In addition, for patients who were moved to the PCU, aromatherapy massage functioned as bridge between the general ward and PCU because one of the aromatherapy nurses worked in the PCU.

Content from these authors
© 2017 by Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine
Previous article Next article
feedback
Top