Cardiovascular Surgery Healing Enhancement Program

Overview

Mayo Clinic is exploring the effectiveness of integrated medicine, which combines conventional medical treatment and complementary medicine to address the patient's mind/body/spirit needs.

The Cardiovascular Surgery Healing Enhancement Program provides complementary and integrative therapies to patients undergoing heart surgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Methods to promote healing, such as massage, music and relaxation therapies, are integrated with Mayo's medical care. The purpose is to help reduce pain, decrease tension and anxiety, and enhance other aspects that promote healing.

The Healing Enhancement Program is a collaboration among members from the Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Division of Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Department of Nursing, Department of Surgery, and the Saint Marys Hospital Auxiliary/Volunteers. The program offers complementary therapies to patients prior to, during and after cardiac surgery. Therapies currently available include:

• Massage
• Music therapy
• Relaxation therapies (guided imagery, stress and wellness classes)
• Prayer

Benefits

These therapies have been shown to deliver important benefits to heart surgery patients and are offered at no cost. These complementary therapies are safe for patients because they are administered by trained professionals in coordination with the patient's cardiac medical team. The team will be happy to discuss other familiar or previously used therapies.

Complementary therapies can benefit patients and family members by:

• promoting relaxation and reducing tension
• reducing feelings of pain and nausea
• decreasing anxiety
• promoting better sleep
• helping patients feel better, physically and emotionally
• improving the surgery experience for patients and their families
• helping reduce the amount of pain medication patients need while recovering
• helping to speed recovery and allow patients to return sooner to their regular daily activities

Goals

The goals of the Healing Enhancement Program include:

• attending to physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the patient and family
• offering cardiovascular surgery patients complementary therapies for pain, tension and anxiety
• improving the cardiovascular surgery patient's experience across the range of care (preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative)
• conducting research on current and future therapies including, music, massage, imagery, pain management and acupuncture

About Healing Enhancement Therapy

The therapies offered through the Mayo Cardiovascular Surgery Healing Enhancement Program use the power of the mind to help heal the body. They are a form of complementary medicine — treatments complementary to conventional medical treatments that a physician may prescribe.

Read more at
www.MayoClinic.com
A service of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research