Nursing Perceptions for Utilizing Essential Oil Application in Labor and the Effect of Targeted Education

This Doctor of Nursing Practice project was implemented to determine how a nurse’s perception of aromatherapy influences their decision to provide aromatherapy for patients during labor and the effect of targeted education on a nurse’s perception. The purpose of this project was to determine how nurses view the use of aromatherapy resources at their disposal and the likelihood that they would offer the intervention to their patients. This project provided education to increase nurses’ confidence in providing optimal care to patients using a traditional and holistic avenue of aromatherapy while determining if education can positively influence nurses to support essential oil use in labor. This study was a quantitative comparative study designed to determine the perceptions of registered nurses and certified nurse midwives on the use of essential oils in labor. The project’s design included a demographic survey, a preinterventional survey, the educational intervention, and the postinterventional survey. The participants in the study were recruited from professional social media groups to solicit data, with 162 respondents who met the inclusion criteria of either practicing as a labor and delivery nurse or as a certified nurse midwife and completed the required education. Data were analyzed initially using the paired t test to determine statistical differences between the presurvey and the postsurvey results with a p-value of .05. This test indicated that education could positively influence registered nurses and certified nurse midwives to promote essential oil use for their patients. This result supports that education can influence labor and delivery nurses to provide essential oils as an intervention in labor