The Effect of a Music Therapy In-Service on Perceptions of Oncology Nursing Staff

It is estimated that over 1 .4 million new cases of cancer will arise in the United States alone during 2009 (American Cancer Society, 2009). This statistic has increased from 1.2 million estimated new cases in 2000, depicting the growing number of those diagnosed with cancer over the past decade. As the number of cases increases, health care providers have been utilizing complementary treatments in addition to traditional medicine to provide a holistic approach to medicine. Music therapy is one such complementary/alternative treatment/ medicine that can address some of the biopsychosocial issues faced by cancer patients (Boldt, 1996; Burns, 2001; Burns, Harbuz, Hucklebridge, & Bunt, 2001; Ferrer, 2007; Standley, 1992; Waldon, 2001).Recently, the number of music therapists who reported working in oncology has remained relatively constant (AMTA, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009). Figure 1 depicts the consistent number of music therapists working in oncology since 2003. During this type of clinical work, music therapists often come in contact with a variety of health professionals. With a focus on interdisciplinary, complementary, and holistic care, these healthcare providers need an understanding of the possible benefits music therapy can provide to specific population groups. As music therapists continue to verify implemented treatments by means of research and literature, it is important to educate and share these findings with related healthcare professionals.Although professional and scholarlyjournals are one method to educate other professionals, another time-efficient and more personable technique is through the use of clinical in-services. Providing brief presentations to a group can be an effective method for informing professionals about the potential benefits of music therapy. In-services can be utilized specifically for educating employees on various topics, including nontraditional services provided to the patients. Music therapists can utilize i?-services to increase the awareness of music therapy for doctors, nurses, administrators, patients, and other staff.Despite the importance of educating others about music therapy, researchers have only conducted and published minimal studies examining the perceptions of music therapy in a professional setting. Darsie (2009) examined interdisciplinary team members' perceptions of music therapy and its function in a pediatric clinic. A survey was administered before and after an in-service with medical and psychosocial staff to study the effects an in-service may have had on perceptions of music therapy. The five minute in-service provided a video with clips of various individual sessions that displayed numerous music therapy interventions. Darsie found that perceptions of goal setting, procedural support, and assessment were significantly different between pretest and posttest. However, Darsie had been providing music therapy services on this unit and the inservice was used as a supplemental educational opportunity. Although data exist supporting the use of music therapy with oncology patients, no studies have been conducted on the effects of a music therapy in-service on oncology staff, particularly on a unit that had not previously offered music therapy to patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine if there were changes in nurses' perceptions of music therapy after a 20-minute in-service.MethodParticipantsEligible participants were all staff working on the surgical oncology unit of a large teaching hospital in the Midwest who attended one of three in-services offered on the same day. Eighteen nurses and one social worker, all female, participated. Participants had a mean of 16.08 (SD = 12.45) years experience working in healthcare and a mean of 8.33 (SD = 9.73) years experience on the surgical oncology unit. All participants indicated they had heard of music therapy in the past.InstrumentThe 20-item instrument was modified from the instrument Darsie (2009) utilized to educate interdisciplinary team members about the role of music therapy in a pediatric outpatient clinic. …