Connecting with colleagues, new ways
Of caring promote health and healing

Concepts of self-care-nursing that aims to help patients marshal their own healing potential-and alternative therapies that can promote self-healing efforts were much-discussed topics as members of AORN's Integrated Health Practices Specialty Assembly (SA) gathered in Lake Tahoe, Calif., June 6-10 to share holistic nursing and integrated health practices during the American Holistic Nurses Association (AHNA) annual conference.

"In health care today, there is a very fragmented worldview, with most of the healing focused on medication and invasive interventions on targeted illnesses," said Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN, HNC, FAAN, keynote speaker at the AHNA meeting and a founding member of the association "We need to spend more time putting the whole picture together, incorporating the individual with the collective, the local with the global.

"Our challenge is to use our sense of self and recognize ourselves as nurse healers and instruments in the healing process. All people carry their healing with them. We must remember that we don't heal others, but we place them in the best condition/s to help them access their own capacities and healing potentials," she added.

Dossey is the international co-director of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health, which launched the Nightingale Declaration Campaign urging nurses and concerned citizens to help promote a global nursing commitment to creating healthy communities. AORN signed on in support of the campaign in June.

As co-author of Florence Nightingale Today, Dossey encourages individual AORN members to sign on in support of the declaration at www.nightingaledeclaration.net. Nightingale believes nurses have the ability to improve the system. She said she always challenges the status quo by using her power to contact people in command. "Today, we can follow in her footsteps as 21st century Nightingales," Dossey said.

Opening doors
Dossey's presentation and other sessions at AHNA's annual conference gave nurses attending "an opportunity to open up, share with colleagues and focus on alternative modalities of care we can incorporate into our lives," noted Norrie MacIlraith, RN, MS, CNS, a consultant with N Mac Limited: Nursing Facets and Behind the Mask of Rochester, Minn. MacIlraith is chair of AORN's Integrated Health Practices SA.

Integrated health practices (IHPs) blend appropriate alternative therapies (also called modalities), such as music, aromatherapy or massage, with mainstream medical and nursing clinical practice. Combining traditional and alternative therapies is central to the theory behind the holistic nursing specialty championed by AHNA.

"I go to this meeting to get a jump start for the rest of the year, because the atmosphere is so energizing and welcoming. Participants come from such varied areas of nursing, but we all connect in our interests and really support each other," said Arleen Sakamoto, RN, MSN, CNOR, CNS, AHN-BC, a staff OR nurse at the San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center and the chair-elect of the IHP SA.

IHP in perioperative practice
Sakamoto is an IHP Clinical Nurse Specialist in the OR. "I approach patients in the OR with respect, honoring their dignity and aware of the present moment to help facilitate their ability to promote the healing process," she said.

She also uses integrated practices on a daily basis as a model for self-care. "I eat healthy, I exercise and I take care of myself. Doing this gives me the energy to work long shifts in situations that can be stressful and draining," she said.

The Lake Tahoe conference offered a balance of useful information for self-care, practical applications and career-enhancing strategies that will help attendees incorporate holistic nursing theories into perioperative settings, said Bonnie Denholm, RN, MS, CNOR, AORN perioperative nursing specialist and the staff consultant to the IHP SA.

"Many perioperative nurses understand that a comforting touch and music therapy can decrease a patient's anxiety during surgery, but the evidence-based work presented by the speakers at this meeting, and practiced by members of the IHP SA, deepens our understanding of practical applications we can use to lead to improved health for our patients and each other," Denholm told AORN Connections.

Promoting IHP within AORN
Sharing with others the value of integrated health practices has been one of the primary goals of the IHP SA since it was first formed in 2004. Although it has fewer than 200 members, IHP SA has maintained an active coordinating council and has provided all AORN members opportunities to learn about and benefit from integrated health practices.

For the past several years, SA members have presented sessions on alternative therapies during AORN Congresses and hosted "serenity rooms," offering massage and aromatherapy to help members relax and recharge after workdays packed with educational sessions and association business. SA members have begun planning the activities they will present during the 2008 Congress in Anaheim, Calif.

"Our SA really needs more visibility among members; there are so many who don't know what we do. But we are working to change that," said IHP SA Chair MacIlraith. "Every member of AORN can benefit from incorporating integrated health practices into their daily lives, whether they are caring for a patient or caring for themselves."

To join the Integrated Health Practices SA, contact AORN Customer Service at (800) 755-6300, extn.1.

Additional Resources

National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Nightingale Declaration Campaign