The Magic of Touch

[quote name=NRSKarenRN

Those who are old enough to remember the original version of "Mission Impossible" will also remember the days when the evening shift offered back rubs to every patient. It was part of the rhythm of the unit, part of taking care of the whole person....[/size]

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I am "old enough" but alas, a Nurse who became a Nurse later in life. I think I would have been very happy "in those days" in some ways.

I was taught massage in Nursing school. When I worked med surg on the 11-7 shift we used it only to apply lotion as part of skin care to the "roll and wipe" population. That was in 1980. After that I worked in the ER. No time for rub downs there. Since then I have been in Psych. Any touch that is not strictly medically necessary will get you in big trouble here. No psych hospital I've worked at is comfortable with nurses giving any sort of backrubs. It is too easy for the patient to misunderstand your intent.

Till I left the hospital in 1991, part of 3-11PM routine was PM care and backrub...WHY did some nurses stop offering that???

Good Lord, if those poor girls had to massage patients in addition to taking all those admissions for 3-11 shift, we'd soon have no evening shift nurses!

Evening shift is the worst!

Plus, I don't even think massage is taught in nursing school any more.

I think we're all too busy just doing the basics of keeping 'em alive.

Sad....