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You are here: Home / History of Massage / History of Hospital Based Massage

History of Hospital Based Massage

August 12, 2015 By Julie Onofrio

  • 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
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/…/QBullNorthwestUnivMedSc…/
  • 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
  • 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

Filed Under: History of Massage

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