Acupressure, a promising intervention for fatigue, within the European nursing care pathways (ENP): An integrative review

Abstract

AimsThe aim of this study is to test whether acupressure for patients with fatigue is an efficient nursing intervention and if it can be implemented into the European nursing care pathways (ENP) nursing classification system.BackgroundPreviously, interventions for acupressure were included nonspecifically in ENP and therefore were not available for standardized nursing documentation in an electronic health record (EHR).IntroductionAcupressure is a nursing intervention that is increasingly used in specific settings. ENP is a nursing classification system that provides evidence‐based nursing interventions for nursing diagnoses.MethodsA systematic international literature search was conducted from May 2021 to December 2021. An iterative, hierarchical search process according to the 6S evidence pyramid was chosen. The results were reported following the PRISMA statement.ResultsFindings of 49 included publications that studied a total of 1,716 patients indicate that certain acupressure points may be efficient in treating fatigue.DiscussionAcupressure is a useful nursing intervention and can really help patients experiencing fatigue. It is illustrated how the findings have been implemented in the development of ENP nursing interventions to document acupressure.ConclusionThe acupressure points most frequently used on the ear with positive effects in improving fatigue are Shen Men, liver, spleen, subcortex, endocrine, heart, and sympathetic, while the most common points on the body are ST 36, SP 6, LI 4, HT 7, KID 1, Ex‐HN 3, Ex‐HN, and KID 3.Implication for nursingIn the future, nurses will be able to use ENP to quickly and easily document acupressure interventions for fatigue in the EHR.In the EHR, the documentation of the nursing process with ENP could help to promote research into evidence‐based approaches to fatigue by generating mass data on the different concepts of acupressure, which could lead to a clearer determination of the evidence and contribute to the safety of care and patients.