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Discussion

Question on holistic RN Scope of Practice

Sometimes people have a background in "holistic modalities" (like chi gung, bodywork, acupuncture) who aren't healh care "professionals" from a western medical perspective.

Basically when sifu/sensei/teacher said "learn this!" you did it. If you thought it was absolute hogwash you kept your mouth shut and did it anyway.. because you were learning something traditional and you had to take the whole package or lose out on the overall learning experience.

I never thought much about it. If you wanted to be a TCM doc.. well you went to acupuncture school. Otherwise you just (quietly) teach your students, and if they got hurt and you used dit da or tui na. Don't hang out a shingle for being a "doc" and you have no problems. The nail that sticks up gets pounded down. Besides this is a place for hurting people.. not a clinic! :)

Anyway I recently met a RN who is this blazingly "vivid" Reiki/healing touch practitioner. So I was wondering.. what in the usual Asian traditional bag of tricks can an RN legally get away with doing?

I'm assuming than since RN's are allowed to touch patients for therapeutic purposes they could do tui na (bodywork, what most westerners call "acupressure"), plus wei qi liao fa (external projection, plus stuff that is like reiki and "Healing Touch", what some folks call "energy acupuncture"). Can an RN use traditional therapies involving cupping? Moxa? What about needles? Will a nursing license cover passing herbal teas or components for medicinal congee?

Hopefully the vocabulary I'm using is something the holistic nursing experts here will be familiar with.

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  • Experts

Depends on where you live and your BON. You might not have any trouble with Reiki or other energy therapies but might with any physical touching. In Texas, for example, I could practice Zen Shiatsu because I had been properly trained in it. Therefore, I did not need a massage therapy license. In Hawaii, I had to get a massage therapy license which was a pain since it was not applicable to Zen Shiatsu.

  • Author

Thanks Zen. The irony of phrasing everything in terms of Qi/ki/energy to avoid scope of practice issues.... well it's DELICIOUS!

I know that my state massage board (TN) started going after nurses for practicing massage without a license. The massage practice act says that nurses can practice massage when it is "part of their regular professional duties." Thus, they can do massage in a hospital or doctors' office but cannot set themselves up like massage therapists.

This question is a real bag of worms. After being in multiple states as a RN, I can say that even within the cities, it can be different, especially with the states that have a freedom act ( which is becoming very small now).

In california, I could utilize many differend massage and bodywork therapies under my RN scope of practice. But in one city they req. only a RN and business license and accross the street in another city, they wanted, police station test, more money, chest x-ray, etc, regardless of my BON scope of practice.

When massage was used in my private practice, same thing. But in the city I was in, only if you had massage tought in your Nursing program, which I did.

Like the other poster said...I went to hawaii as well and everything alternative is off limits for an RN. Had to go to massage school again. I went in california just for a refreshier but only for 150 hours. No good in hawaii.

Then off to NC and a whole different ball game. Had to go get 650 more hours of massage, take nationals, get art of healing licence, and business licence and FBI clearence. But the BON here states, if it is in a nursing private practice, and you are not practicing medicine and you have had some kind of training for it, it's ok, minus massage and bodywork. But cupping is ok, reiki, reflexology, ultra sound, vibration with electrical machines, TENs units, ect.

Having said that, raleigh has some different laws that cary does not...so go figure.

and here there is no licence for ND and homeopathy...egads.....

So untill every BON and every state of massage and bodywork, come together, there will always be loopholes and different rules for every traditional and alternative thing we healers do...just have to do no harm, know what you are doing, know the rules for each state and each city and go from there...

It is very similar in my country. If nurses have learned natural therapies they are somewhere aloud to use it for their patients. They have to have license from valid institution. Sometimes they do the natural therapies (massage or what ever) just outside the hospital.

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