Reiki and Nursing

Considering that it was one of the two holistic interventions I mentioned in my last post, and probably the one people are least familiar with, I thought it would be a good idea to elaborate on Reiki as part of holistic care, whether of one's patients/residents/clients or oneself.

Reiki is generally translated as "universal life force energy." The "ki" syllable is the same as one finds in T'ai Chi or Qi Gong, though the rendering in the Western alphabet is different in each case. The healing system of Reiki was developed by Mikao Usui, and while the story not only of how he did so but of how it spread beyond Japan is highly symbolic and mythologized, even Western medicine is beginning to recognize some of its benefits. Those benefits come from tapping into the universal life force that permeates and connects everything in order to bring one's own energy into balance.

That's a bit nebulous for many of the hard-and-fast science types, understandably. It's also difficult to evaluate rigorously, because it doesn't behave like a medication, a surgical intervention, or other easily measurable approaches. You can't see it. The recipient determines whether and how much of it to tap into, in a manner that many have ideas about but no one can prove conclusively, and the effects of how they use it may be completely invisible as well. Some try to argue that because a practitioner can not reliably determine whether there is an actual recipient on the "other end" of a distance session, that this somehow disproves its efficacy. I'm fond of the counter-argument that this is like asking an aspirin whether it is aware of relieving a headache as a means of determining how effective it is.

Here are two opposing examples from my own practice. I've had occasion to use Reiki to help someone manage severe and acute pain while waiting for medication to become available, with incredibly visible and obvious results. I've also had occasion to use Reiki with someone who I could sense was pulling through vast amounts of energy whilst I was seeing no change whatsoever in condition, either in physical or visible emotional state. This person was also near end of life, so I hypothesized at the time that the individual was utilizing the energy on a spiritual level to work out whatever spiritual healing was needed in order to transition from this life, but I can never and will never know. In practice on myself, I have observed that when I perform a Reiki treatment on myself before sleeping, my quality of sleep improves vastly and that has enormous impact on my physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.

That's all well and good for Reiki, you may say, but how does it fit in with nursing?  I suppose that depends in part upon your philosophy of nursing. Mine is heavily influenced by Katie Eriksson and Margaret Newman, who both take a very holistic view of people and their care needs, including body, mind, and spirit. (Actually, my personal philosophy developed before I became aware of either of these theorists, but I find that their theories describe my nursing ideals rather well.) As such, I feel that the care I give needs to address all these aspects of a person in order to be complete. That can be rather a tall order.

Often, there is little time in the course of a shift to give the kind of holistic care one would like, but as nurses, we frequently have occasion to place our hands on our patients during various aspects of assessment and care. As mentioned above, it is the recipient who determines if and how much Reiki energy they will tap into, and while there are specific hand placements  (though considerable variation exists in these), all that's really necessary at the most basic level of practice is to place one's hand(s) on or near a person for that energy to be accessible to the client. I have been surprised on more than one occasion to feel the energy "turn on" while re-positioning a client in their bed or wheelchair or listening to their lungs. While my subjective perception of this is by no means necessary for it to be of use to the client, it is reassuring for me to be able to observe that this is available to them even when it is simply not practical to offer a full, formal treatment.

So, now that I've put some of my thoughts on Reiki and nursing out there, what are yours? Are you a nurse who practices Reiki? If so, how do you incorporate it into your practice?