This week started out right as I attended a workshop about CAM therapies (Complementary Alternative Medicine) on Tuesday. The topics included aromatherapy, guided imagery, meditation, music therapy and homeopathic medicine to name a few. The women who presented at the workshop shared their stories of how they first started to embrace CAM therapies and how it changed their lives. It sounds sort of hokey for me to even type that, but their stories really inspired me so just hear me out!
This is an area that I've been interested in since nursing school. This past summer, I created a cart for our unit that contains various supplies to implement CAM therapies for our patients. Specifically it contains: aromatherapy (peppermint, lavender, spearmint oils), Sea bands (acupressure for nausea), notebooks for journaling, personal CD players with headphones, CDs (relaxation, guided imagery and instrumental), massage lotion, and eye mask and ear plugs (to drown out roommates and nurses). It's pretty cool and has been used on our unit quite a bit already!
As a nurse, it feels good to be able to offer a patient something else when medicine isn't working or you're waiting for it to kick in. I've used peppermint oil for patients who are experiencing nausea and watched it work! Just this past week I had a patient who was writhing in pain and itching herself like crazy (from her pain medicine). I offered her lavender oil while we waited for the doctor to put in the orders for benadryl and pain medication. She shrugged and said "yeah sure, whatever." So I went and got her a cotton ball with lavender oil on it and as she sniffed it, I saw her face relax and she said "ooh this smells good!". Her writhing and itching stopped and she relaxed until I could bring her medications. It was awesome!
Aromatherapy is a pretty cool intervention. It works by inhalation or absorption through the skin. When a person inhales the essential oils (such as lavender or peppermint), the fat soluble molecules enter the olfactory bulb and travel to the limbic system in the brain, which is responsible for regulating emotion and memory (among other things). What's cool is that aromatherapy works even if a person doesn't have a functioning sense of smell! (Bummer for that person to not be able to enjoy the smell part though.) For more information about how aromatherapy works click here!
So you can imagine after such a great workshop that I had a long list of books to read! I ordered a few of them the night I got home and they should be here soon. In the meantime, I think I'll focus on some mindful breathing and enjoy aromatherapy and music therapy when I'm feeling stressed. And enjoy the relaxing effects....
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