What happened to the "lost arts?"

Furball · Feb 15, 2002

What an awesome idea Matt!! Massage therapists making rounds just like like RT's. hmmmm I remember being in Vanderbilt hospital as a kid. (appy) waaaaay back in 1972. I looked forward to the morning AND afternoon backrubs. They sure made me feel better. :roll

mario_ragucci · Feb 16, 2002

This may seem like old hat knowledge to some, but you hafta stop and think. Our hearts pump our blood, but what pumps our lymph? Our lymph.sys is, like, extremely important to us. Dogs, for example, have a way of utilizing their hearts to aid the circulation of lymph, which is why dogs don't get sick very often. People do get sicker than dogs usually do. (sicker than a dog?)

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that if we don't give a sick person a good massage, how is their lymph gonna circulate? And without the circulation of lymph, how is all them B & T cells gonna do their magic on all the nasty microbes? If a sick person just lays there and doesn't move, well, you know what I mean.

Jenny P · Feb 16, 2002

I do work in ICU, and my patients can't clean up after themselves. It's a few of the other nurses who are the slobs where I work. There's one nurse who is an excellent nurse, but she can't hit the waste basket if she was sitting in it! She "cleans up" after herself, but throws everything TOWARDS the waste basket but never hits it. :eek:

"Sloppy Sam" has stuff all over every flat surface in the room, and the patient isn't cleaned up, settled, or comfortable.

"Messy Mary" may have cleaned somethings up, but chart and patient are both total disasters. IV tubes and hemodynamic lines? I'm sure they have been both braided and knitted into intricate patterened designs so it is impossible to tell which line is the maintenance IV and which is the art. line or the dopamine drip. At least the transducer cables are wires, so you can tell them apart. I'm never quite sure HOW the lines can be so tangled when the pt. is confined to the bed and they haven't had a "road trip" that day. Usually they can be just as tangled after I'd straightened them up the night before.

Concerning backrubs and old-fashioned TLC; my patients do better because they get that extra care. Last night I spent almost an hour giving backrubs to a patient with severe spasms from lying in bed 5 days. BUT, I didn't have to tie him down and heavily sedate him (as had been done earlier), and I found out why he whad been so restless and agitated.

I also remember when I was younger, and very sick, and hospitalized for 2 weeks, how good those back rubs felt and how the nurses could talk to me and help calm my fears. I will never forget their concern, care, and how good those backrubs were!:)

Mario, back when I was in nursing school we learned several different styles of back rubs, including effleurage, which was a massage that was done in such a way to stroke the lymph and blood towards the heart. Petrissage was also used to knead large spasming muscles in order to loosen contracted muscles and tendons, while the friction of a massage helps release tight small muscles. Scientifically, massage can cause vasodilation and increase venous return, and will increase lymph return up to 25%. It can also decrease both systolic and diastolic BP, also decreases sVO2, and may decrease heart rate. (It may also increase heart rate and cause arrousal, depending on the technic).

fergus51 · Feb 16, 2002

I give about a million backrubs a day in L&D!!!! And I know that a lot of the ICU nurses in the place do too. The only place where backrubs and neatness are really lacking is one med surg because those poor nurses hardly have time to blink!

donmurray · Feb 16, 2002

Matt, maybe the BSN's are too busy playing scientist with their expensive educations! ;o)

semstr · Feb 17, 2002

Don,

hear, hear!!!

RNforLongTime · Feb 18, 2002

Ok now, let's not go cutting down the BSN's. I take offense at this being a baccalaureate grad myself. Believe me, I have no interest in playing scientist!

semstr · Feb 19, 2002

didn't want to offend you Kaknurse, sorry about that.

Take care, Renee

Trauma Columnist · Feb 19, 2002

Ouch - sometimes we can be kinda catty!! However, as an ER nurse, I like my rooms to be neat also. If you start an IV, throw away the wrappers, keep pt belongings in bags, etc. Besides with the quick turnaround time in the ER, you'd better stay neat and organized or you miss too much...

Jenny P · Feb 20, 2002

I guess that because of working in the past in critical care units where the patients were lined up bed-vent-bed-vent, etc. and a mess or anything out of place could raise havock in a code situation, I AM a stickler for "ward order" and keeping my work place tidy and neat. The unit I work in has lots of room around each bedside, but does the mess have to expand to fill the room? I mean, it doesn't bother me too much if there are a few things out of place, or if a nurse has a bad shift and things are messy, but some people are always messy and it gets old. It's like having to pick up after your kids at home all of the time, then coming to work and picking up after co-workers. Sometimes ya gotta B@#*H!! (I just wish it would help in either place!)

BTW, I'm not perfect- my desk is usually full of rhythm strips. :rolleyes: