I strongly believe in this type of treatment and therapy. I do it for my self! Massages, body wraps and aromatherapy. This reduces stress for me. I work as a psychiatric nurse and man it can be mentally stressful! But I feel as a mental health nurse, I should also be treating the whole person not just a mental disorder. Sometimes it is the physical ailments causing such psych problems. It is like being a sleuth and figuring out what is wrong. I like that.

Right on, sister.

I totally believe in this!

I just studied Jean Watson! and many other theorists. Most of them base their theories on holistic healing and nursing. awesome! I'm in the master's program and just finished my theories class.

Our patients deserve holistic care through out the life span, as do we. Mind, body and spirit.

 Once upon a time, someone asked me how I thought I could be a nurse and stick only to clinical applications and medications to help my patients get better if I was so absorbed in Homeopathy and aromatherapy...  My answer was, "Why can't I do both???"  Then I went to nursing school and learned about holistic nursing...  So I decided that I CAN do both!  And I do!

I am both excited and amazed to read that so many nurses are interested in a holistic approach COMBINED with regular nursing!  It bodes well for the professional usual medical approach.  Although, I'm not surprised that nurses (of all the medical professionals) would be the ones to champion it.  It is nurses who probably need the benefits of such an approach as much as the patients they serve.

 I wish everyone were as enthusiastic about it as we are!  I've invited co-workers and fellow grads to come and join in on the website and the groups.  I hope to pull as many as I can in to help them understand the importance of a multifaceted approach to nursing.

Holistic nursing should be the only way to practice.

Thanks Jeannie for the insight. That is why I love this. When it dawned on me that I didn't have to do either/ or.  I could combine the love for nursing and the natural health part.

Right, Jeannie I agree. With integrative care, there is no diagnosing or treating. The Doc's still to that. Integrative care incorporates so many ideas. I love nursing. I have found that there are so many genre's becoming available to combine that love for nursing and the natural.

Jean Watson is an excellent nurse theorist. I need to get headed to work, but next week I will post her 10 caritas of nursing care. They basically incorporated a relationship and caring based nursing model. She rocks!

I never have meant to give the impression that I diagnose or treat. Sometimes I work with physicians in integrative ways. As far as asking help for my son, I still think he is overmedicated and If anyone out there knows of ways that these people coming back from Iraq are being helped, I am all for suggestions to get help for him. I am going to make an appointment with an acupuncturist and a more integrative MD. Thanks.

Speaking of being holistic and looking at the overall picture....

My son with PTSD (being on so much medication) vomited in his very deep sleep Sunday morning, and my husband found him probably just a few minutes before we would have lost him. (Thank you God for being all powerful, for I give you all the Glory) He had just moved in with us. He has an aspiration pneumonia, and was in ICU for three days. He is in a regular room now. On monday, I talked to the hospitalist and he was going to put him back on all his meds from the V.A.  I told him NO. The doses are too high. I was also wanting a psych consult because Brandon felt like he needed all this medication, and the V.A. just kept upping his doses. The hospitalist told me he wasn't there to get involved and go against what the VA was doing. He was there to treat his pneumonia.

What in the world????? Good example of being too focused. He could only see his pneumonia, and not that he was sooooo sedated that he was aspirating his own vomit. Well, as nurses we can order a psych intake. That is just exactly what the ICU nurses did. The intake nurse came yesterday after he was out of ICU, and hopefully we can start really helping him.

The doc did not put him back on all his meds (because of my insistence). He is back on a couple of them, but just the starting out doses. Do you know my son is still sleepy all day? He may still be getting over the time of having some low oxygen. (and they do wake him up all during the night). But, the point is, he is off the huge doses, and doesn't even notice it.

I am going to be getting involved with the VA. I am probably going to team up with some other moms I have heard about, and bring some attention to the overmedication problem going on with these soldiers coming back from IRAQ. It is a problem. Just snow them...

OK, I just had to vent...  I almost lost my son on Sunday. I feel so blessed today. Thank you Lord for watching out for those we love.

 That is wonderful news!!  It took all this happening to get him off of some of those meds so THAT is aweful but thank God he is alright!  Contrary to popular belief, medications don't fix your problems, they just hide them.

I am presenting the bimonthly article at the hospital for the journal club on Wednesday. I got the article from the peer-reviewed magazine Journal of Holistic Nurses. It is about the power of touch. I can't wait. I think it is the very first every article from a holistic perspective that has ever been presented at this hospital.

It was very well received, and has opened others up at the hospital in asking me questions about what I do, and I believe it will open more doors for me in the future.