Music and Nursing

[gerardb]

I am a musician and have a master's degree in music education and piano from Prague CZ. I also have another master's degree in fine arts/archaeology. I have taught for 9 years but I always had issues of what they claimed to be "classroom management. So I decided to change career and now I am studying nursing. I want to know if there is a way to combine my knowledge of music into the nursing and be successful and make myself an advanced career through it. Any idea?

[elkpark]

I am also a classical musician who later went into nursing. Although I've run into plenty of other healthcare professionals who are also serious musicians over the years, I haven't seen any examples of professional opportunities that combine music and nursing. One possibility you may want to look into is music therapy, although that is an entirely separate discipline from nursing.

http://www.musictherapy.org/

Best wishes for your journey!

[gerardb]

Thanks. yes. I have heard of music therapy but it cannot be combined to the nursing career and it is a separate discipline by itself. I was thinking if one could a do master's in nursing with a music concentration and how music can affect or be combined to nursing care. So what made you switch to nursing and why do you think many musicians go to nursing? Is it becasue of a lack of prospects in music?

[HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD]

In the US, there are no nursing specialties that incorporate music therapy . . . IMHO, that's a real shame. Maybe we need to poke the NANDA folks to come up with something??? However, since I am older than dirt, there are some individual efforts I have come across. I do recall some oncology nursing colleagues in the '80s that used music as a form of relaxation therapy in a pain management protocol. I was involved in another study (early 80s?) that incorporated music into protocols intended to prevent autonomic dysreflexia.... and I know that there are periodic studies of the use of music as an adjunct to anesthesia.

Personal opinion - its a D**n shame that classical musicians can't make a decent living.... we need more of you guys!

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

All I can think of is holistic nursing. Also, if you go into research, like a PhD, you may be able to bring change to that

[gerardb]

That's great. Where can I do a graduate degree with such musical therapeutic functions applied to nursing? In which universities? DO you know any program?

[gerardb]

You mean holistic in the sense of non pharmaceutical mean of healing related to musical therapeutic means? can a holistic nursing degree give me a PhD in holistic music therapy?

[elkpark]

There is no such thing as an MSN with a "music concentration," and no nursing program that would award a degree in "music therapy," holistic or otherwise. I believe what the other poster meant was that, if you pursued nursing to the doctoral level, at which you can function as an independent researcher, you would have the freedom to conduct whatever research interested you, and could design and investigate the use of music-based interventions in a nursing context. However, in 30 years of nursing in five different states, I've never encountered a job that combined nursing and music skills/knowledge. That's why I suggested you might want to look into music therapy, which I am well aware is an entirely separate discipline -- the only discipline which is based on music as a therapeutic intervention in healthcare, which seems to be what you're interested in.

Since you asked, I got interested in nursing many years ago through my participation in several social service/activism projects through my church and NOW chapter at that time, including running a soup kitchen for two years and working with battered women and the "street people" in that city.

I have not encountered that many nurses over the years who are also musicians, but I've known a lot of physicians who are also musicians.

[A&Ox6, MSN, RN]

What I meant about a PhD is that if you go into research and conduct clinical trials that prove the efficacy if music as a nursing intervention, you might be able to bring a change about in the future of nursing. Who knows? You may be able to start a new field.

Set your goals high!

However, of you want to be able ti use music in practice, music therapy is probably a much more practical choice!

[gerardb]

Sure. I will set my goals high, but as elkpark said not many jobs combine nursing with music and as you said music therapy is the only practical way but then as music therapist I won't be able to work as a nurse, besides not many jobs probably in music therapy.

[Geanme]

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