“I don’t think that people realize how powerful human touch can be.”

“This therapy is invaluable to me—not just physically, but for my mental state too.”

“I think that we as Americans need more of this [integrative] therapy because there are so many things that a pill can’t solve.”

This is some of the feedback offered by patients after massage therapy sessions at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In this month’s AJN, integrative therapy nurse Hallie Boyd describes how her program has become a vital part of symptom management on the spinal cord injury and disorders unit there.

Help for patients in coping with chronic pain.

As a staff nurse on this unit, Boyd had encountered many patients who were trying to cope with chronic pain. While the hospital had long educated nurses on the use of integrative modalities such as guided imagery, acupressure, and aromatherapy, it was difficult for them to employ these techniques on a regular basis during busy and unpredictable shifts.

So, while continuing her work on the spinal cord unit, Boyd returned to school to focus on hospital-based therapeutic massage for medically complex patients. Training alongside a diverse group of practitioners, she developed and refined the idea of a full-time integrative therapy nurse as part of her unit’s strong interdisciplinary team.

Creating a new nursing role.

After becoming certified in therapeutic massage and bodywork, and with the support of her nurse manager and department head, Boyd created this new nursing role. She regularly attended interdisciplinary rounds, educating the team about how integrative therapies could benefit their patients. Any member of the team could initiate an integrative therapy consult for a patient, and this too increased buy-in and support. Boyd also created an integrative therapies bulletin board on the unit, where she highlighted tools nurses could use for self-care at home.

Nurses (who, after all, appreciate initiatives that so clearly benefit their patients) enthusiastically supported her role.

“As a massage therapist and a nurse, I had the ability [during therapy sessions with patients] to assist with unforeseen nursing tasks, such as tracheal suctioning, and with repositioning the patient before, during, and after patient appointments. . . . Staff nurses appreciated knowing their patients were going to be both comfortable and safe while I was in the room.”     

Change takes time.

Boyd was successful in establishing this program not simply because she had a good idea. Change takes time. She committed to advancing her own education, built upon her existing relationships with staff on the unit, methodically integrated the new role into their existing interdisciplinary team, and demonstrated how an integrative therapy nurse benefited their patients. As a result, other staff supported and invested in these efforts.

Boyd points out that because pain, anxiety, stress, and negative changes in quality of life are seen in every clinical setting, an integrative therapy nurse could be beneficial for other patient populations, including those in outpatient and home care settings. Read the details of this successful initiative in the November issue of AJN: “The Integrative Therapy Nurse: A Valuable Player in Symptom Management” (free until December 15).