1.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 Kamei ; Yayoi Kitamura ; Mari Haratake ; Kazuko Fujiwara ; Hiromi Okamura ; Seitetsu Kanemura ; Norifumi Kishimoto
Palliative Care Research 2017;12(2):923-927
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.