Weaving Mind, Body, and Spirit into Inpatient Care, Regarding Women, Fall 2004
Weaving Mind, Body, and Spirit into Inpatient Care
They don't come in pill, drip, or patch form, but treatments such as reiki, acupuncture, and therapeutic touch can ease pain, reduce anxiety, and induce sleep. And they are just some of the alternative therapies available to patients at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.
“The Integrative Healing Program (IHP) was started in response to patient and provider demand,” says Marianne Balay, RN, Assistant Vice President, Women’s Health Services and Integrative Healing Initiatives. “Patients are interested in these techniques and recent medical school graduates wanted to incorporate them into their practices.” Karen Lin, MD, Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at UMDNJ–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, is the program’s Medical Director.
Therapies such as acupuncture have indeed gained in popularity in the U.S. According to a nationwide study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 36 percent of adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine.
The hospital’s Integrative Healing Program offers meditation and relaxation, guided imagery, bedside harp therapy, therapeutic music and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, or TENS, to patients. Massage therapy and aromatherapy will be offered soon.
The program is coordinated by Carolyn Bilton, MA, RN, a holistic nurse practitioner. Bilton pursued holistic nursing at New York University because she wanted to combine the power of mind, body, and spirit into daily nursing care. “Conventional medical therapy and integrative modalities assist the patient on the healing journey,” says Bilton.
Descriptions of the therapies can be found in brochures given to patients upon admission to the hospital. All of the therapies, with the exception of acupuncture, are free to patients. Families and health care providers can refer patients for these therapies.
Patients can access these therapies by calling extension HEAL, or 4325, on their room phones. Classes on some of the therapies also are available. For more information, click here or call 732-828-3000, ext. HEAL (4325).
The editorial content for this article was taken from the print version of Regarding Women. Click here to sign up for future editions of Regarding Women.
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