Archive for November 12th, 2007
Massage Therapy and Nursing
12 November 2007History of nursing began with applications of massage. Florence Nightingale wrote, “Notes on Nursing“, published in 1860 supporting her work in establishing effective nursing, including applications of massage. Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was dedicated to educating the masses on the benefits of massage for healing the whole body, he wrote “The Art of Massage” in 1895. He noted ” The world is waiting for a new generation of trained nurses who shall be thoroughly trained in the technique of all physiologic methods “. (page 269) His book influenced nursing education in massage techniques until its decline in the late 1920’s, disappearing all together in the nursing programs by the 1950’s.
It is very interesting to note that massage was used by the nursing corp in both world wars, but is not practiced now by the majority of nurses because of its additional education requirements. The few nurses who value the art of massage are part of the National Association of Nurse Massage Therapists (NANMT).
Massage in western medicine started out on a great foundation with Nightingale and Kellogg, but fell by the wayside when the duties of the nurses adapted to assisting the Doctors in their job descriptions as the growth of western medicine increased. A division of Massage Therapists and Nurses should have been implemented when these changes occurred to further the ideal healing of the whole body. Fortunately Therapeutic Massage is now widely prescribed by physicians and accepted by Insurance companies as preventative alternative care.