by Andy Bernay-Roman, LMHC, MS, RN, LMT

By its nature, nursing is a hands-on profession. Nothing communicates love, care, and respect like touch. It is fundamental to the well-being of mammals, and is innately healing and therapeutic.

The National Association of Nurse Massage Therapists (NANMT) represents nurses who are specialty trained to use massage techniques in alignment with nursing process and diagnosis, and advocates for them in the nursing and greater healthcare world. Nurse Massage Therapy has been a nursing specialty since 1987, and the NANMT has been an active member of the Nursing Organization Alliance (NOA) since 1993.

The NANMT’s intent is simple: to reintroduce the benefits of loving, intelligent touch into healthcare via nursing. Thirteen State Boards of Nursing already have made position statements declaring massage done by specialty-trained nurses to be within the scope of nursing practice. NANMT’s aim is to legitimize massage as a viable treatment modality, and to promote third party insurance reimbursement for massage services. Nursing is a powerful gateway to this end.

The NANMT’s grander vision includes the creation of vital touch teams in hospitals, who like other nursing specialty teams (ie, IV team, enterostomal care team.) address patients’ well-being through direct application of their specialties. Nurse Massage Therapists would utilize direct hands-on treatments for pain- and stress-relief where medication might be contraindicated or not needed. Even Florence Nightingale said, “Nature alone is the true healer. Our job is to maximize our patients’ exposure to its forces.”

As an example, the St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta implemented a Vital Touch Task Force in the ‘70’s and ‘’80’s which orchestrated a hospital-wide education on the benefits of touch. It linked with local massage schools to provide massage services for staff and patients alike. Doctors were ordering massage treatments for hospitalized patients, and soon St. Joseph’s began reaping the rewards of its new high-touch approach. The hospital showed its' hospitable and caring nature; nursing and patient satisfaction soared, and the number of law suits plummeted.

Over fifty hospitals in the USA now have massage programs for those very reasons. Massage humanizes medicine, and is cost-effective. The NANMT is proud to serve as a vanguard of a high-touch movement that promotes massage, and welcomes the interest and support of all hands-on minded people.