- 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)
- 1923 – Soldiers receive massage in medical Barracks (History of Massage)
- 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