Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/70551
MASSAGE IN A HOSPITAL SETTING 250 massages. When the staff got a taste of massage and how good they felt afterward, they began to see the benefits of massage for patients. Another potential barrier of bringing massage to the hospital was culture clash. Training in medicine and massage therapy often takes place in two very different worlds, Gardiner says. The languages spoken by each discipline are vastly different. And, the environments are different, too. Very little massage therapy training takes place in hospital settings. In most massage training classrooms, there are no cardiac monitors or intravenous poles. At the hospital, the client is a patient and may be in a hospital bed, on an examination table, or in a waiting room. Courtesy of Tracy Walton & Associates. Top photo by Sue Mapel. Bottom photo by Stephen Fischer. AN INCREASED NEED IN ONCOLOGY One population the Muscular Therapy Institute Foundation's initial grant helped was the group of low-income cancer patients at BMC. The funding allowed massage therapy to be used to help alleviate the symptoms associated with cancer and its treatment. BMC's cancer patients deal with not only the considerable physical and mental stress of cancer treatment, but also daunting social and economic challenges. The treatment itself can make a patient sick, requiring ongoing care and several trips back to the hospital. Oncology care magnifies the degree of need. "One thing about cancer now is that as the medical treatment has improved, some types of cancers have resolved into more chronic diseases," Gardiner says. "With 74 massage & bodywork july/august 2012