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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
  • 1882 – In 1882,the “American Florence Nightingale,” Anna Maxwell of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, began instructing nursing students in the art of massage, ultimately prompting the head nurses at the hospital to request a course at their own expense and inspiring
    physicians to prescribe massage for their patients.7 Several early nursing texts described massage as a basic nursing skill, and writings from the 1920s indicate that massage was at that time still firmly embedded in the nursing process—seen as an essential part of patient care plans, with site and frequency based on medical diagnoses. Many Benefits, Little Risk: The Use of Massage in Nursing Practice
  • 1883 – John Kellogg Battle Creek Sanitarium, taught nurses massage.  The Art of Massage (book)
  • 1901 – The Teaching of Massage to Pupils in Hospital Training-Schools (PDF) Author(s): Helen Conkling Bartlett Source: The American Journal of Nursing , Jul., 1901, Vol. 1, No. 10 (Jul., 1901), pp. 718-721
    Published by: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3402346
  • 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.” HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL OF PHYSICAL THERAPY AT
    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
  • 2011 – A history of massage in nurse training school curricula (1860-1945)PubMed Paula Thomas Ruffin 1
  • 2015 – Over 125 hospital based programs listed on the Society for Oncology Massage website.
  • 2016 – HOSPITAL BASED MASSAGE THERAPY: A CALL FOR COMPETENCIES June 1, 2016 DOI: 10.1097/01.NAJ.0000476164.97929.f2
  • 2016  -Many Benefits, Little Risk: The Use of Massage in Nursing Practice (PubMED) Kathryn F Westman 1, Cathy Blaisdell
    • 2017 – Hospital Based Massage Competencies created. Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health (ACIH) Hospital Based Massage Therapy (HBMT) Competencies for Optimal Practice in Integrated Environments Rev 2017

    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