The participants of this study perceived that encouraging touch and treating the pain
are two ways of ensuring physiologic adaptation involving the senses. The two indicators
identified by Roy (2009) involving the senses that relate to the findings of this study, are
effective processes of sensation and effective coping strategies for altered sensation. Critically
ill patients often have altered neurologic and sensory functioning. Most patients are also
unable to talk and move. Encouraging touch by holding the patient’s hands will help as an
effective coping strategy for family members.