The Effect of Hand Massage Applied to Palliative Care Oncology Patients

World Health Organization (WHO) palliative care is defined as \"an approach that aims to reduce or prevent suffering by early identification, evaluation and treatment of the physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems of patients and families accompanying life-threatening diseases, and thus to increase their quality of life.\" Palliative care is a multidisciplinary approach that provides appropriate health care for oncology patients, who have a wide variety of medical, functional, social and emotional needs. Pharmacological approaches are generally used in symptom management of palliative care patients. In addition to pharmacological approaches, non-pharmacological approaches are also preferred. Massage is a preferred intervention among professional nursing practices because it is reliable, has no side effects, has a direct effect on patients, and is easy to apply. Massage is the stimulation of the skin, subcutaneous tissue, muscles, internal organs, metabolism, circulation and lymph systems for therapeutic purposes through mechanical and neural means. The presence of sufficient mechanoreceptors in the hands, which stimulate painless nerve endings, shows that the hands should be chosen as the appropriate area for massage. Among the effects of hand massage: ensuring the regeneration of cells, facilitating the elimination of accumulated toxins, providing relaxation, helping to reduce pain by facilitating the release of endorphins, helping to increase circulation, regulating respiratory functions, providing stress and anxiety control, creating a state of well-being, strengthening the immune system, increasing general comfort, improving sleep quality. is located. Studies in the literature have found that hand massage reduces anxiety levels, stress and agitation levels, pain levels, and increases comfort and sleep levels. As seen in the literature, the effectiveness of hand massage applied to different sample groups on anxiety, stress, agitation, pain, comfort and sleep parameters was evaluated. There are very few studies evaluating the effectiveness of hand massage applied to oncology patients. In addition, no study has been found that evaluated the effects of hand massage on pain, comfort and sleep in palliative oncology patients, who constitute the majority of palliative care patients.