Comparison of a Healing Touch, Coaching, and a Combined Intervention on Comfort and Stress in Younger College Students

Abstract

Three nursing interventions to increase total comfort and reduce stress-related events in young college students experiencing stress were compared. Healing Touch, coaching, and a combination of both, were compared to a waitlist. On comfort and stress, Healing Touch had better immediate results, while coaching had better carryover effects.

Coaching Younger Practitioners and Students Using Components of the Co-Active Coaching Model

“…1,2 Coaching also has been a tool for faculty development 3 and professional development. 2 Several health fields have reported the application of coaching in developing nurse leaders, 1,2,4-6 nursing staff, 4,7 medical residents, 8 dentists, 9 physicians, 3,10,11 students, 12 pharmacists, 13 and pharmacy leaders. 14 Coaching also has been used in reducing work-related stress and improving work-life balance.…”

Comfort Theory

“…Theory-based empirical research (use this model to design comfort studies). Reprinted with permission from Kolcaba (2007). 16 research, and dissemination.…”

“…Comfort theory evolved from Kolcaba's early concept analysis and TS of comfort as a desirable outcome of nursing care as determined by the patient. 4 She demonstrated that patient comfort could be measured through patient questionnaires [5][6][7][8] and later verbal rating scales (VRS), 9,10 and that these measurements were sensitive enough to show a significant increase in comfort over time, given an effective intervention. [5][6][7][8][9]11 Moreover, patient comfort was found to be predictive of which patients achieved their selected goals related to health.…”

A Pilot Study

“…That particular study examined a group of young college students and found that after receiving HT there was an immediate decrease in overall stress at the end of the study (Dowd, Kolcaba, Steiner, & Fashinpaur, 2007).…”