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Explorations in the theory and practice of Massage Therapy

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History of Hospital Based Massage

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  • Massage used in India, China, Egypt, Greece and Rome in temples and halls.
  • 4th Century – Christian houses of refuge treated the sick and dying
  • Middle Ages – Touch used as ‘laying on of hands’ in the care of sick and dying people.
  • 18th Century- Used in Hospitals
  • 1883 – John Kellogg Battle Creek Sanitarium, taught nurses massage.  The Art of Massage (book)
  • 1918 – Gertrude Beard – “Early in 1918, an Orthopedic Unit. was formed in the Army to staff a Reconstruction Hospital in France, and nurses with training in massage and therapeutic exercise were being recruited for this ‘
    unit. I applied and soon found my self in the Army Nurse Corps, where I served as a nurse until the end of World War I.”
    HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL THERAPY AT
    NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
    GERTRUDE BEARD, R.N., R.P.T.I
  • 1923 – Soldiers receive massage in medical Barracks (History of Massage)
  • 1927 – “Massage was taught in the Physical Therapy Department at Wesley Hospital , while other technical instruction and
    clinical practice was taught in the Physical Therapy Department at Northwestern university.”
    NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
    GERTRUDE BEARD, R.N., R.P.T.I
  • Mid 1980s -Social Worker – Tedi Dunn and Nurse Marian Williams,  starts the massage program at the California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
  • 1980 – Irene Smith, Dawn Nelson, Helen Campbell started teaching on how to work with HIV/AIDS
  • 1980s – Dawn Nelson Pioneered work with the elderly
  • 1980’s – Helen Campbell pioneered hospice and hospital massage
  • 1980’s – Colorado.  Barbara Carnahan, Mary Rose of the Boulder Hospice
  • 1980’s – Karen Gibson, nurse massage therapist, moved massage forward in hospitals in Colorado and partnered with the Boulder School of Massage to create an  internship program
  • 1992 – National Association of Nurse Massage Therapists was founded in 1992 by Andy Bernay-Roman a registered nurse, massage therapist and psychologist
  • 1995 – Hospital Based Massage Network created by Laura Koch in Colorado
  • 2007 – Society for Oncology Massage
  • 2015 – Over 125 hospital based programs listed on the Society for Oncology Massage website.

Statistics:  1998, 7.7% of US hospitals offered one or more CAM therapies. That number was up to 37% in 2007 according to a 2008 report by the American Hospital Association.  Massage for the Hospital Patient and Medically Frail Client” MacDonald, Gayle (2005)

The Reasons for Massage in a Hospital Environment

66% – Pain Management, 57% – Massage for Cancer Patients, 55% – Pregnancy massage, 53% – Physical therapy, 45% – Mobility training, 41% – Palliative care