I am an RN who has been very ill for the last four years both physically (two very painful abdominal surgeries) and mentally (first major depression and now post traumatic stress disorder. ) I just came back from a spa in Arizona where I was treated holistically and traditionally. The doctors and nurses were amazing. They helped me outline a specific program for me there and a program to continue at home. Accupuncture was used for stomach pain and Percoset Withdrawal. Finding a practitioner who does EMDR for Post Traumatic Stresss Disorder was highly recommended. My psychiatrist and psychologist at home never heard of it. I also experienced The Healing Touch given by a nurse plus massage therapy, a form of water therapy called Watsu, and many stretch and yoga classes. Extra blood tests wete taken which would be considered untraditional. Fish Oil and Niacin was suggested for a hereditary cholesterol/heart problem that runs in my family. One day I was crying, which I do easily, and the desk secretary sat and talked to me and gave me a hug. I cried when explaining what caused my trauma and the interviewing nurse gave me a hug too. In one week, i felt a million times better physically and mentally. I just made appointments for next week for a massage, EMDR, accupuncture, and yoga/stretch. In four years and since my surgeries, nothing has helped. In one week, i felt soooo much better. So i am going to continue where I live, and i will let you know how I am doing. I was never a great believer in holistic medicine, but after last week my feelings are changing. The accupuncture took my stomach pain away 90%, and i didn't feel any withdrawal until a few days after the treatment. So who knows? Holistic health certainly can't cure alll diseases, but it can cure some and it can certainly make the patient feel and cope better-in my opinion and personal experience.

is there really a place for holistic medicine in the "real"nursing world

Hi Krissy,

Sorry to hear of your past problems but it is great that you found your way to a way of healing.

I am color blind - so there are things I will never appreciate or 'know' that involve colors - e.g. I will never, ever see what non red-green color blind people see when presented with a standardized test. Instead, I see what red-green color blind people see. The rub is that normally sighted people will never see what we see so if you were a skeptic who was normally sighted - you would never be able to get evidence that there were red green color blind people who were accurately reporting what they saw rather than delusion.

Pretty much the same with skeptics and holism - they just do not get it and it runs counter to their beliefs that modern science has explained all there is to know about health, healing, and illness. They are as wrong as they were when they stood by the shore and laughed at robert fulton (steamboat), the Wright brothers at kitty hawk (airplanes), and Edison in his lab (electric lightbulb.)

The less well informed skepts exhibit the typical response patterns or religious fundamentals and fanatics - they 'believe' they know science the way some believe they know 'god'.

on the other hand, it is pretty inexpensive to find out for yourself, as you have. based on your past knowledge you know that surgery cause as many problems, if not more, that it solves. if skeptics looked at modern surgery, pharmacology, and vaccination programs with the same degree of blind, ill-informed, doubt, they would close down the entire health care system.

What has always been most curious to me is that skeptics rarely, if ever, address the shift from physicians and hospitals assuming the roles of insurers by entering capitation agreements, propsective payment systems, and managed care agreements. Under such systems, health care providers make more money when they provide less service - banking more of the difference between what they are paid and what it costs for them to provide service. Yet skeptics are unifromly silent with regard to "professional caregiver insurance risk" even though it represents one of the greatest threats to health and our system of health care delivery.

Go figure.

Enjoy the healing experiences - sadly, most skeptics will never experience them...

Re: is there really a place for holistic medicine in the "real"nursing world

Yes!
Besides being a nursing teacher, I'm a Reiki master.
Nursing has all with holistic manners of caring because nursing is holistic in its nature.

Re: is there really a place for holistic medicine in the "real"nursing world

Hi,

It is 6 months since I last posted. My post op abdominal pain is gone, and I am off the Percoset. The pain just disappeared with time, and I was detoxed from the Percoset when I didn't need it anymore.

I am taking a course called Theories in graduate school, and I see holistic medicine in a different light.

Holistic means "concerned with wholes rather than analysis or separation into parts." Holism is " the theory of the importance of taking all of somebody's physical, mental and social conditions, not just physical symptoms, into account in the treatment of illness." Hiatt (1986) proposed that the bio-psycho-social model needed to include the spiritual because, that dimension, concerned as it is with life meaning is one determinant of health related attitudes." So to me at this point in my education, being a holistic nurse means that I will take all of these things into consideration when working as a nurse with a patient; bio, psycho-social-spiritual. Krisssy

Re: is there really a place for holistic medicine in the "real"nursing world

Originally Posted by spiritualnurse

Yes!
Besides being a nursing teacher, I'm a Reiki master.
Nursing has all with holistic manners of caring because nursing is holistic in its nature.

What is Reiki?

Re: is there really a place for holistic medicine in the "real"nursing world

Reiki is a type of healing energy, a universal life force energy, that is drawn thru the practioner (who is the conduit) into the receiving person, animal, plant or thing. If it isn't wanted, it won't flow thru. Both practioner, and receiver are getting it. Most of us experience warmth and tingling in our hands which is the typical way of passing the energy along. It can also be given without touch as in distance healing or in cases where touch is not a good idea such as with a wild animal. The receiver or client may also feel the hotness of our hands or a tingling sensation. It does not allow itself to be used for anything but goodness. The practioner is working with spiritual guides which most become aware of pretty quickly. It is a very respectful relationship. When you are working with this energy or any of the touch therapies, you are also receiving information specific to helping that person. Not their inmost secrets, but rather where the pain is, what joint is inflammed, or even sometimes if something happened to them that is causing a problem for them now. Practioners working with Reiki, Therapeutic Touch, Healing Touch, Reconnective Healing, and Polarity Therapy as well as many other of these healing modalities usually become very intuitive as they are working their psychic muscles so to speak. The more they practice, the more psychic they get. The sense of touch gives us information, but many of us also have other psychic senses activated. I hope that helps you understand and that I haven't wierded you out too much. Many of us have spent quite a bit of money learning these techniques and studied with some very well respected teachers. I have enjoyed the study and use of all of the above, and it has enriched my life enormously.