Is hypnosis within the scope of nursing practice?

[bookwormom]

I was considering taking a course in hypnosis, but first, I thought I would check to see if it is within the scope of practice for RNs. I went through the decision making "Scope of Practice Model" as suggested by the RN Board, but it is inconclusive. My primary interest is in helping nursing students with smoking cessation and test anxiety. Does anyone have experience with doing hypnosis as a nurse or experience with the practice issues? I'd also be interested in any written guidelines that have been developed.

[birdgardner]

Just hover your hands while you hypnotize and call it "therapeutic touch." :)

[Katnip, RN]

Just hover your hands while you hypnotize and call it "therapeutic touch." :)

That was a rather silly reply and irrelavent to the question.

For the OP, I do know that hypnotherapy is widely used by therapists and psychiatrists for weight control, smoking cessation, and phobias.

I don't know what the licensing requirements to practice it, but I doubt very much it's within the nursing scope of practice. You'd have to get a copy of your state's BON Scope of practice to be certain.

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

Just hover your hands while you hypnotize and call it "therapeutic touch." :)

:monkeydance:

Now that's funny!

I have often used suggestion to calm my agitated patient...

Oh, and often using the phrase: 'This aught to do it!' when giving a PRN. Works wonders! Nighty night!

PS. I have a feeling this will turn out to be a controversial thread.

[James Huffman]

I was considering taking a course in hypnosis, but first, I thought I would check to see if it is within the scope of practice for RNs. I went through the decision making "Scope of Practice Model" as suggested by the RN Board, but it is inconclusive. My primary interest is in helping nursing students with smoking cessation and test anxiety. Does anyone have experience with doing hypnosis as a nurse or experience with the practice issues? I'd also be interested in any written guidelines that have been developed.

I'd encourage a call to whatever BON you operate under.

There's usually someone there who specializes in practice issues, and they are usually quite helpful. (They are usually quite astonished that a nurse actually calls with such a question, too!) But I would call, ask an opinion, and ask for any relevant written materials (or web addresses).

Good luck to you. I'm always happy to see nurses push the limits of practice. I think this is a good thing.

[bookwormom]

Thanks. I did call the Board and was advised to review the "Scope of Practice" model. It really didn't help, although I plan to examine it more closely. They also advised me to contact the licensing Board for Counselors, who said they knew of no restrictions to the practice of hypnotism, and the Board of Psychologists, who so far have not answered my calls. I'm beginning to suspect that hypnotism is largely unregulated in my state. I think I'll contact the Board of Medicine also.

I guess the question is whether hypnotism is a treatment modality which requires the expertise of a certain level of practitioner or whether it is considered an intervention available to all or many health care professionals (like relaxation training).

I also find that there isn't consistency among the certifying bodies; in fact I'm not sure all the organizations I have looked at are legitimate.

[nurz2be]

I was considering taking a course in hypnosis, but first, I thought I would check to see if it is within the scope of practice for RNs. I went through the decision making "Scope of Practice Model" as suggested by the RN Board, but it is inconclusive. My primary interest is in helping nursing students with smoking cessation and test anxiety. Does anyone have experience with doing hypnosis as a nurse or experience with the practice issues? I'd also be interested in any written guidelines that have been developed.

I went to the American Nurses Association website and found these relevant articles. They are very open to ideas of uses of different types of modalities complimenting any other type of "medical" modality. Very interesting and seeing that the information is directly from the ANA, well the readers can judge the legitimacy.

Hope this helps you.

Article 1

Article 2

Article 3

[bookwormom]

Thanks for the great links!

Certainly, if hypnotism is regarded as an alternative or complementary therapy, there is a good basis for considering it within the scope of nursing practice. However, when one looks at the literature on holistic nursing, and alternative and complementary therapies, hypnotism is not frequently mentioned. If it is considered psychotherapy (and I do find it mentioned in association with that sometimes) then, it might be considered a therapy appropriate to licensed psychotherapists or physicians.

Just considering the possibilities...

[GingerSue]

in my textbook, hypnosis is included in the holistic healing modalities, as a "mind-body therapy"

holistic nursing is described by the canadian holistic nurses association as nursing practice that uses noninvasive modalities and strategies to promote health and wellness. http://www.chna.ca

therapies offered by holistic nurses are considered complementary to conventional medical treatment plans.

maybe check with the chna for help re: practice issues and guidelines (i realize that it's a different country but there likely will be useful similarities)

hypnosis is interesting because it can be used to control pain and change lifestyle habits. it may cause the release of enkephalins and endorphins.

this book does mention training for various modalities: reiki - there are levels of reiki training and with mentorship one can advance to level of reiki master; to be a certified healing touch practitioner a person completes a multi-levelled series of courses (the healing touch program is endorsed by the chna); chiropractic therapy involves study at a university for 3 years before being admitted to a four-year course of studies in chiropractic medicine; naturopathy practitioners are primary-care physicians trained at accredited medical colleges in a four-year program with licensing board exams. there is no mention of the training for hypnosis. but there is also nothing mentioned about the training for music therapy or art therapy. art therapy is a post-graduate program (usually requires a degree for admission to the program).

[brissie]

Man, I would be hypnotizing patients all night...."you don't have a call light"....

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

Man, I would be hypnotizing patients all night...."you don't have a call light"....

ROFL:lol2::lol2:

[CaLLaCoDe, BSN, RN]

When my wife gave birth to our daughter,Celeste, we had an O.K. primary nures and a great nurse named Mary who came in and helped perhaps only for grand total of 15 minutes. She started my wife's IV (my wife has deep veins; makes for an impossible stick; she also has a low pain threshold). Mary also used hypnosis on my wife to work out the pain and tenseness of the ordeal; she also coached my wife with the breathing and also with the time when it was best to push. Mary only spent quality time in the room. And wow, really amazing! We we're so lucky!

I know that if nurse Mary had not been on that night, we would have have had had more of a struggle during the 5 hours of her labor. I know that the hypnosis helped, I saw the difference in my wife's condition whenever nurse Mary entered the room. ;-) Thank you Alta Bates' nurse Mary!