An Empirical Study of the Effect of Aromatherapy on Neck and Shoulder Pain in Hospital Nurses

• Main Authors: Wu, Chien-Ju, 吳倩如
• Other Authors: Shieh, Horng-Jer
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/49176034662582007860

碩士 === 台灣首府大學 === 休閒管理學系碩士班 === 102 === Neck and shoulder pain is a common disease and in nursing staff, there is also a high prevalence. Oral medication is the mainstream of treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of aromatherapy intervention for hospital nurses at outpatient department, suffering from neck and shoulder pain and in order to offer another treatment choice. This study employed quasi-experimental design. The subjects were from two regional hospital nurses at outpatient department. Subjects with neck and shoulder pain were enrolled. The agreed filled consents and questionnaires. Questionnaire coding was made. Experimental group received twelve weeks of aromatherapy treatment and health consultation, once a week. The compound essential oil of lavender, marjoram and geranium was used for weekly aromatherapy for scalp, neck and shoulder massage, 30 minutes per session. Acupressure was also combined during the massage. The control group didn’t undergo aromatherapy intervention. There were a total of 72 subjects, 35 in experimental group and 37 in control group. SFS-30 shoulder fatigue scale (SFS-30) and pain scale were used to examine the subject to detect the effectiveness of aromatherapy. Data were collected before and after intervention. Analysis software was SPSS 17.0 and methods were descriptive statistics and paired samples T-test. The results found that the experimental group’s neck and shoulder pain improved after three months of aromatherapy with compound aromatic oil massage intervention in five dimensions, i.e. occupational, time, mental, illness and sleep. There was a significant improvement, but in the control group, there was no such significant difference. The degree of neck and shoulder pain after aromatherapy intervention in the experimental group also had a statistically significant than that before aromatherapy, while the control group had no significant difference. Obviously, after three months of aromatherapy and health consultation, the neck and shoulder pain was soothed. Therefore, it is recommended that nursing staff could undergo aromatherapy to relieve stress, improve neck and shoulder pain, together with health consultation, which also is able to upgrade their service for customers in the workplace.