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Elicia Baker-Rogers
Justa’ Touch Integrative Health & Wellness, USA
ScientificTracks Abstracts: Curr Res Integr Med
Background: Occupational stress can diminish a nurse's ability to focus and perform sensitive tasks, thereby interfering with optimal patient care. Aromatherapy is an appropriate evidence-based integrative intervention that can reduce stress and evoke the relaxation response. This project aimed to implement aromatherapy as a safe, independent, and convenient integrative nursing modality for Critical Care Unit (CCU) and Progressive Care Unit (PCU) nurses to reduce perceived stress levels at the workplace. Methods: Twelve CCU/PCU nurses voluntarily used one of five distinct essential oils selected combined with warm and moist towels (Oshibori), for self-care to foster stress reduction. A non-experimental, descriptive, pre-intervention and postintervention survey design was used which employed the Expanded Nurses Stress Scale (ENSS) and the Feeling Thermometer Stress Scale (FTSS) to measure nurses' perceived levels of stress in the workplace. Findings: All 12 participants were female nurses. There was a total of 84 aromatherapy sessions, with a mean duration of 7.8 minutes. The average change in survey score from pre to post intervention was (0.03; p<0.851) using the ENSS. A paired sample t-test of FTSS scores showed a significant change (Pearson's Correlation Coefficient of -2.86 p = <0.001. Conclusions/Application to Professional Practice: Oshibori can be an effective integrative modality for reducing nurses' occupational stress, even if only used for five to ten minutes duration. Results are limited to project site; however, the process warrants repeating in other healthcare facilities to ascertain the probability of congruent results.
Elicia Baker-Rogers, DNP, RN, COHN-S, CCM, AHN-BC, ADS, LMT, BCTMB has over 38 years of professional nursing experience. She received her Doctor of Nursing Practice - Integrative Health and Healing, from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, MN in May, 2017. She completed her MS and BSN degrees at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Baker-Rogers is a 20-year Veteran of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, where she held several distinguished leadership positions. She is a former board member of the Veteran Suicide Prevention Channel, and was Director of Health and Wellness for the Austin Veteran Arts Festival (AVAFEST 2021). Baker-Rogers is Board Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (BCTMB) and is also an Acudetox Specialist (ADS). She is a member of the American Holistic Nursing Association’s Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Task Force. Also she is the owner of Justa’ Touch Integrative Health & Wellness, PLLC.
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