From massage to nursing?

Welsh Cake · Sep 1, 2006

hey everyone, im new to this

happybody · Sep 3, 2006

Hi Welsh Cake:

Welcome! Are you a nurse and a massage therapist or thinking about one or the other, like me?

Cheers,

happybody

lyndsaynicole · Jan 8, 2007

Wow-I'm glad to see this, I don't know how I haven't seen this part of the board yet. I'm a massage therapist and I'm going back to school for nursing this year. I'm glad there are enough people that do that to warrant an entire section of the board!

kiki2 · Feb 8, 2007

Hi, I have been a massage therapist for 10 years. I am in my second semester of nursing school. I love the fact that I am a LMT because I can incorporate a little massage therapy with nursing. Not full body of course but hands and feet. It also depends on the patients condition, in some cases it is contraindicated. The patients love the extra attention and they are less likely to get mad at you when you have to give them a shot:) .

ltlangl2 · Feb 24, 2007

Hi all!! I have been a MT for about 3 years also (in Michigan), I have worked for chiropractors and a little on the side (but mostly for the chiro's) I have found that the being a MT has helped me as I know more in my classes that most do not, Muscles and bones and movement. I have been asked alot of questions from people about MT, they want to know where I went to school, if I liked it etc.... I loved doing massage but my left wrist and for arm started getting sore (no much pain) from the deep massages that i was doing. I am so excited to see what I can accomplish being a RN and MT. I hope that maybe I can relieve tension and anxiety. I am looking into the OB field as I know (being a mother of 2) that massage can greatly help their pain.

Does anyone agree with this choice?

Thanks

karinnmt · Oct 22, 2007

Hey there. I've been a longtime lurker, but this thread has forced me to post! I am almost finished nursing school (BSN) and I have been an LMT for almost 8 years now. I love being a massage therapist, but as I'm sure you've experienced, you have this sense that you want to do more once you can feel what's going on with them. I figured education was the only way to do that. So far, massage experience has done nothing but help me so far. I find my palpation skills and intuitiveness come into play most often. Nursing school is by far the hardest thing I've ever done, but it is sooooo worth it. Good luck to you. Hope you feel the call to join us. BTW, I still do massage, although on a limited basis now that school is so hectic, but the purpose ultimately is to become a nurse practitioner and use massage in my everyday assessments of patients. I can't see ever giving massage up.

Karin:monkeydance:

touchhealth · Mar 18, 2008

Hello everyone!

I am also a massage therapist aspiring to become a nurse. I've volunteered at our local hospital for the past two years, but was very inspired by the massage interns there...I'm now two weeks away from applying to become one of those massage interns (and I just found out it comes with a scholarship towards more massage classes! BONUS!!) Very excited to get that hands on experience with patients. I like doing relaxing spa massages, and the more technicale rehabilitative work, but patients are by far my favorite.

Meanwhile, I'm still taking all those nursing pre-requisites and hope to apply to schools this October/November.

I love the idea of bridging allopathic and complementary healing. I am so convinced of the power of touch in health that I really want to advocate for it to be more readily available in hospitals and clinics.

By the way, I often meet nurses in my massage therapy classes. Looks like there is a lot of mutual attraction between the two fields!:heartbeat

take care!

Jedi of Zen · Apr 17, 2008

Hey there:
I'm a massage therapist who is considering going into nursing (I know that this is really a forum for nurses--thank you for indulging me...). Are there other MT's here who've entered nursing? If so, how was the transition? Do you continue to do massage? Are there advantages to being a nurse massage therapist? Any advice (from anyone in this forum) for someone holistically minded who's considering nursing? Also, any men out there (like me) who have gone this route?
I've been practicing for about three years and am about to enter an advanced training program in medical massage therapy and orthopedic massage. I was delighted to hear that there was such a thing as a Nurse Massage Therapist, which has given me some hope.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has thoughts on this. Thanks so much for your patience and your time.
-happybody in Colorado

I went to massage school back in 2003. I was living in TN at the time. I had a really awesome A&P teacher, and our class size was only 6 total, so we had a lot of good, one-on-one interaction with our instructors.

I found that as we got into the A&P stuff, that really got me more and more interested in doing something more specifically related to healthcare, even before I'd finished school.

When it came time to graduate, all of my classmates all had jobs lined up. I had sent my resume out to everyone and their brother, and I just was not having any luck. I think part of it may be due to me being a guy, based on a couple of comments I got from some would-be employers, although I'm not entirely sure. At any rate, I took the NCBTMB, got my license, and spent nearly a year trying to find work. By the time I finally did get an interview, I realized that massage therapy is a very interesting field, but not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. So after a lot of thought I made the decision to move back in with my parents and pursue nursing school.

I spent a long time (2005-07) working part time as a transporter at a local hospital and taking nursing pre/co-req's. I'm now in my 2nd semester of an associate-degree nursing program, and I'm definitely enjoying. It's a huge challenge, though - it's NOTHING like massage school. I do think that having the A&P classes in massage school has helped a lot, esp as I was taking those classes again for nursing school (the massage school I went to was not accredited). If you have any other questions feel free to ask or PM. :)

Trinh · Sep 5, 2008

happy body where ever you are, what ultimately happened? Did you end up in nursing school? I've been a massage therapist for 16 years and now have one more semester of BSN program. I must say I miss my practice terribly. Nursing school for me was also the hardest thing I ever did and a 180 degree turn from massage school! One of my frustrations has been the lack of exposure alternative or manual therapies get related to nursing care and nursing education. I also found myself biting my tongue during a nursing externship in the ER this summer when the docs addressed patients' various pain complaints, finding nothing after all sorts of workups, labs, CTs ,x-rays etc. Pain meds and muscle relaxants to beat the band. Some of them were open to hearing about soft tissue work and the benefits of massage relative to pain.

Anyhow, I'm happy to be done with nursing school after this semester and look forward to returning to my massage practice as well as incorporating my work into my nursing. Still thinking about how to get creative with that. Have lots of ideas.

If you are still logging on let us know what you ended up doing. :coollook: :nurse: :yeah: :up: