Holistic nursing is now a nursing specialty and holistic nurses embrace the concepts of holism and healing. Having recently attended the annual conference of the American Holistic Nurses Association, I am reminded once again of my love for nursing and what it offers to the world in the form of healing. Holistic nurses can be found in many venues like hospitals, nursing homes, private practice, hospice, home health care, clinics, doctor's offices and many others. Holistic nurses embrace not only holistic principles in their nursing but also gather many certifications in various healing modalities so that they can better offer their patients and clients ways to improve their life, restore balance and heal physically, emotionally and spiritually. Here are three great reasons why I think holistic nurses need to become certified aromatherapists.
Aromas Enhance a Sense of Well-Being
Positive healing thoughts can produce healing reactions in bodily processes. Research shows that a pleasant aroma will enhance a greater sense of well-being more than an unpleasant aroma will detract. Hospitals, clinics and nursing homes are infamous for offending smells. By diffusing the right therapeutic grade oils, nurses can enhance healing by raising one's positive sense of well-being. Examples include: neroli, orange, petitgrain, lemon, lavender, Roman chamomile and many others. Think about the smell of chemotherapy-for many patients the smell of these agents seems to come out of their pores and in their urine and stool. Patients describe it as a disgusting odor. Nurses can help by using pleasant aromas to assist the patient to tolerate the chemotherapy treatments.
Therapeutic Grade Oils Can Promote Rest and Relaxation
Again research has overwhelmingly shown that certain essential oils high in terpene alcohols, particularly the florals, and oils high in esters can have a relaxing effect on the body physically, emotionally and spiritually. They also can influence brain rhythms helping the person to drop down into a variety of lower levels of brain activity: alpha indicating a quieting of mental chatter and theta and delta indicating the mind going into reverie with intuitive flashes. Examples include chamomile, orange, bergamot, lavender and melissa.
Therapeutic Grade Oils Can Help with Stress Relief
Whether it is the stress of being a patient or client who is not in balance or the nurse who is harried with many duties to perform, aromatherapy can help stimulate parasympathetic action in the body. Oils like clary sage, lemongrass, mandarin, myrtle, orange, chamomile, marjoram, frankincense, neroli, sandalwood and ylang ylang are known for their ability to quiet racing hearts, lower blood pressure, promote digestion, and prepare one for sleep. Parasympathetic stimulating oils would be relaxing to the mind, improving to the digestive system, countering emotional stress responses and assisting with sleep. Essential oils classed as "balancing" will not stimulate a person to either extreme but rather to a balance in the autonomic nervous system. After all-we want to achieve a balanced autonomic nervous system with neither system-parasympathetic and sympathetic-totally governing the body. Examples of balancing action oils include bergamot, grapefruit, niaouli, tea tree, cypress, hyssop, lavender, ravensara, cedarwood, myrrh and rose.
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