Explore : the journal of science and healing
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Pharmaceuticals such as opioids have routinely been prescribed for pain management. However, there has been an increasing epidemic of prescription opioid abuse, causing demand for nonpharmacologic complementary and integrative therapies for pain management. ⋯ Integrative therapies are appropriate modalities to help alleviate pain and other symptoms for the inpatient population. Due to the effectiveness of these modalities, integrative therapies may be a complement to opioids prescribed for pain. In addition, with over one-third of the patients falling asleep during therapy, our results suggest that integrative therapies can promote a state of relaxation. Future studies are warranted to determine the impact of integrative medicine therapies on sleep deprivation and other common symptoms of hospitalized patients.
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Healthcare clinicians often endure stress over long periods of time. The burden of witnessing death and disability, complex work duties, long and irregular hours, the threat of errors, and tensions between colleagues result in emotional strain, anxiety, depression, burnout and in the worst case: suicide. The Caregiver Support Team was designed to provide emotional first aid to clinicians in the healthcare environment in the moment of need and triage those who would benefit from ongoing care. ⋯ The Caregiver Support Team was positively received. The organization received budgetary support from our hospital to disseminate the program system-wide. Additional interventions are needed to overcome the root cause of workplace stressors. A formal link between Risk Management is being developed to identify cases which warrant emotional (vs. clinical only or both) debriefing/group processing.