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Toward a theory of touch: the touching process and acquiring a touching style
Author(s) -
Estabrooks Carole A.,
Morse Janice M
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2648.1992.tb01929.x
Subject(s) - gestalt psychology , grounded theory , psychology , process (computing) , style (visual arts) , therapeutic touch , intensive care unit , gestalt therapy , intensive care , nursing , skin care , qualitative research , computer science , medicine , visual arts , sociology , art , perception , social science , alternative medicine , pathology , neuroscience , psychiatry , intensive care medicine , operating system
Methods of grounded theory were used to explore the questions How do intensive care nurses perceive touch and the process of touching? How do intensive care nurses learn to touch? Data were collected by in‐depth interviews with eight experienced intensive care nurses from the same intensive care unit of a large urban Canadian hospital Findings revealed two substantive processes, the touching process and acquiring a touching style, neither of which has been previously reported The stages and phases of these processes are described as well as cueing, the core variable Based on the data analysis, touch was conceptualized as a gestalt with multiple dimensions, suggesting that valid operational definitions of touch must incorporate more than skin‐to‐skin contact