Podcast

Stacey Schultz join us to talk about providing massage in various skilled nursing facilities and what makes that different from hospital settings.

Stacey runs a massage practice in Rochester, MN with advanced training in Manual Lymph Drainage, Oncology massage, hospital/medical massage and care-giving at the end of life as well as Rosen Method Bodywork. You can read her paper on Rosen Method Bodywork at the End of Life Observations from a Massage Therapist.

(We also mention the OakWorks desktop portal )

This episode is sponsored by: 

• Pure Pro Massage Products.

Visit PurePro.com and use the coupon code PURELOTION to get your free 8 ounce bottle of Pure Pro’s Hypoallergenic Massage Lotion, expires March 29, 2018.

Transcript:

Sponsor message This episode is generously sponsored by Pure Pro massage products and Pure Pro’s hypoallergenic massage lotion. With pure organic aloe and golden jojoba oil, Pure Pro’s hypoallergenic massage lotion keeps your client’s skin feeling silky soft. There’s no greasy residue, and it’s completely unscented and pH balanced making it ideal for elderly and pediatric clients with fragile skin. This lotion is versatile and safe. All Pure Pro products are vegan, cruelty free, and nut free, making your job as a safe, mindful practitioner that much easier. Get your free 8-oz. bottle of Pure Pro’s hypoallergenic massage lotion including free shipping at purepro.com and use the code PURELOTION. That’s purepro.com and use the coupon code PURELOTION for your free 8-oz. bottle of Pure Pro’s hypoallergenic massage lotion.

Allissa Haines Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Massage Business Blueprint podcast, where we discuss the business side of massage therapy. I am Allissa Haines, and I am here today with my special guest, Stashy — I knew I was going to mess up your name immediately. There are so many S’s and noises and C’s and “shizz” [phonetic] noises. So I’m here with my special guest, whose name I’m going to try to say correctly, Stacey Schultz. Stacey, hello.

Stacey Schultz Hello. [laughs]

AH Thank you for joining us and for being patient as I hack up your name today. Our topic with Stacey is going to be what massage therapists should know about working in skilled nursing facilities. But first, I’m going to pop in and tell you a little bit about Stacey. Stacey has been a massage therapist since 2010. She has a ton of training in the manual lymphatic drainage Vodder technique, oncology massage, hospice and medical massage, and caregiving at the end of life. Stacey currently has an office in Rochester, Minnesota, tons of experience in hospice massage, and does a few other things I think she’s probably going to tell us about. So, Stacey, that was my abbreviated version of what you do and where you’re at. Have I missed anything important?

SS No. I think you got the general gist of what I do and my training.

AH And since we have a little bit of a weather fetish here, tell me what it’s like in Rochester, Minnesota today.

SS It is currently 20 degrees and snowing lightly, which means it’s warming up to snow, which is a good sign. And we’re waiting for another snowstorm this evening.

AH Ah, how lovely.

SS Lovely, right? Yeah.

AH How enchanting there in Rochester, Minnesota. Yeah, well, it was really warm here in New England at 70 — it almost hit 70 degrees yesterday. It did hit 70 in some areas, and now it’s down to being, I don’t know, 30 degrees again. But, really, it’s not snowing and I don’t see snow is expected, so I’m going to be okay with that.

SS Yeah. Jealous. A little jealous.

AH So we’re going to jump into our podcast guest questions, which we love to ask everybody because it usually turns into something really interesting. Tell us how did you get into massage?

SS How did I get into massage? Well, part of it is that a friend of mine who had multiple myeloma, so a form of blood cancer, called me one day and she was like — she lived in Arizona — or New Mexico at the time, and she called me and she’s like, “I can’t get a massage. No one will give me a massage because I have cancer.” And I was like Hmm. That’s interesting. And at the time, I had one of those cushy, salaried, working-in-a-cubicle type jobs. But her question really got me curious about massage and why someone with cancer couldn’t get a massage. So I did a little bit of research, and then, me being who I am, I decided I have some time in the evenings, maybe I should go to massage school. I started massage school at night and two months after doing that I actually lost my job; I was laid off. The economy had turned, so I was laid off and took that as a sign to go to school full time, go to massage school full time and find just a part-time job to supplement while I went to school. And the whole time I was in school even my classmates knew — they knew that I was in school because I wanted to work with people who had cancer, because I just was floored that people in medical treatment couldn’t be touched. So I went to school, and what was interesting about my massage program — it was actually, there was five women in my class and we all had recently lost our jobs, and so it was a career transition for all of us. So it also became a support group in some ways, too, as we were looking for new direction. I actually met — in the middle of my schooling, I met Lauren Cates at an AMTA Maryland event. I was living in Maryland at the time. I met Lauren and kind of cornered her and was like, “Tell me more about oncology massage,” and I just pursued that route when I was done with school. I look a lot of trainings through — at the time, it was Lighthold and now the Healwell organization — and just wanted to continue expanding my skills and working with the medical population. I was never really interested in deep tissue. A lot of people — you know, massage has to hurt, it has to be this — that was never — my motive of being in massage school was just to work with people who, I guess I would say, are more on the fringes of what massage can offer.

AH I love that. Because I also had — there’s a place in my heart for complex medical conditions and who can be touched and how they can be touched and why not sometimes. And I really love that people like you are able — are willing to take on learning enough to do so safely, and that’s — there’s a big place in my heart for that, so thank you.

SS And part of it, too, was — I’m sure a lot of us can relate. When you’re in massage school you have these little nuggets of special populations or whatever and they’re all of one paragraph in a massage book. So it wasn’t — like I said, it wasn’t until I was done with school when I could really — because then you’re a massage therapist, then you can take the continue ed classes, and that’s really when I started to dig into working with these special populations of people.

AH So what has the evolution of your career been like? You went to massage school; you graduated. Where did you start working? What kinds of career options did you explore?

SS What was interesting was I finished school –like I said, I was living in Maryland at the time, and I actually, at the end of 2011, ended up moving to Rochester, Minnesota. From there I had to start from scratch with a different game plan because my plans changed. Which — I started out working in a massage chain. I made it there for five months, but it was also just a very eye-opening experience to learn what I liked and didn’t like about being a massage therapist. I worked in an employee gym for the medical institution here in town. And then a long while that was going on, I started working with hospice. I worked with hospice for three and a half years, and that laid the foundation for me working with seniors and older adults. Because until then, I had never really considered going into an assisted living facility, independent living, memory care; all of that was new, uncharted territory for me. But working for hospice allowed me into those situations and to also just learn how those types of facilities operate and function. And it also became a place where I could use all of these other skills, where I realized maybe oncology training was really helpful. The medical training was incredibly helpful just learning how to work around wheelchairs or people are on oxygen or how they’re in their hospital bed — if they’re positioned — the railings on the side. All of these things, I was able to use them and it also provided the critical thinking component. But you go from one patient and — sometimes it’d be in the same skilled nursing facility, you’d see one patient and then you’d go do your charting and you walk down the hall and you’d be in someone else’s room and it’d be a completely different scenario that you were in, and it just really drew upon the training that I had and also the critical thinking skills. And also, too, to explain sometimes to either family members or the patients themselves the benefits of massage, because there was skeptical Do you know what you’re doing? and all of this. But to be able to say, “Yes, actually, I do know what I’m doing. This is what I can provide for you.” It just really built the confidence in me working with the hospice population.

AH Tell me what your — what’s your massage practice career like now? What’s a day-to-day look like for you?

SS A day-to-day for me now is I no longer work hospice. I have my own office here in town, which I’ve had now for five and a half years. I’m there, I would say, part time. And now I have contracts at local skilled-nursing and memory-cares here in town. I’m there about 20 hours a week at those jobs, and the rest of the time I’m at my office. It’s a good mix. I find it to be a really good balance, and it just compliments me needing to be out of my office and then me needing to be in my office. It’s a really good fit.

AH What is your fantasy job, training, or location? Your “if I win the lottery” plan for your career? What would you do?

SS What would I do? I think I would do what a lot of older people do — older adults here — snow bird. I’d be in the Midwest for six months, and then I’d be somewhere warm for six months.

AH Yes. Yes. I will meet you in the warm place.

SS The warm place. Maybe Arizona. I don’t know. And also continue doing massage but also to bring in types of movement. Not just yoga, but other types of movement just to make people more aware of their bodies. I just find that so — yeah, moving. Moving, literally, maybe across the country, and then teaching people to move in their bodies, especially when it’s cold and wintery around here.

AH Do you have any other training in that kind of stuff?

SS I do, actually. I have a type of bodywork that’s called Rosen Method. It’s more of a somatic thing. It’s done on a massage table. So there’s that. And then I do this other type of work called Essential Motion. So, again, it’s moving in the body — you allow the client to move in their body how they want to move. It’s pretty profound. It’s massage gone 4-D, I guess you could say.

AH Tell me what that one’s called again.

SS Essential Motion.

AH I don’t even think I’ve ever heard of it.

SS Yeah, it’s one of those California things.

AH Sweet. We’re going to have to learn more about that.

SS Yeah, right.

AH So we’re going to take a break, and we’ll do our halftime sponsor, and then we’re going to launch into the knowledge you have for us on skilled nursing facilities. But I’m really excited that our halftime sponsor — our full sponsor for this whole special interview episode is Pure Pro massage products and their hypoallergenic massage lotion.

Sponsor message For 24 years, Pure Pro has distinguished itself by adhering to the values of quality, purity, efficacy, and education. Most lotions start out a little greasy and end up feeling sticky. Pure Pro hypoallergenic massage lotion has pure organic aloe and golden jojoba. It keeps your client’s skin really silky soft and workable, and it’s phenomenal for elder, hospice, oncology massage, or anyone with super-sensitive skin. All of Pure Pro’s products are vegan, cruelty free, nut free, and they make your job as a safe, mindful practitioner that much easier. And as a special offer, Diana from Pure Pro is giving everyone free 8-oz. bottle of the hypoallergenic massage lotion, and that includes free shipping, if you use the code PURELOTION, P-U-R-E-L-O-T-I-O-N at purepro.com. You can go there and get your free 8-oz. bottle of the hypoallergenic lotion.

AH And, Stacey, you use it. Tell me — and I do too — but I want you to tell me why you use the lotion and how it helps you.

SS I use it specifically with the older adults just because of their skin and their skin tends to be fragile and it — the Pure Pro lotion works great. The staff love it, too, so we continue to use it.

AH That’s awesome. We totally — when I bring lotion with me on site for different gigs, people absolutely fight over it and everybody wants an extra squirt for their hands before I leave. Again, you can go to purepro.com, throw an 8-oz. bottle of the hypoallergenic lotion into your cart, use the code PURELOTION for the free bottle and free shipping and give it a shot. If you haven’t tried Pure Pro yet, you should and you’re going to love it.

AH We’re in Part 2 now. Tell us what we should know about working in a skilled nursing facility, and what kinds of skilled nursing facilities are there?

SS Yeah. Great questions. I’m a person of definitions. I like to set some definition groundwork first just so that people understand, because I didn’t even understand all of the terms. First off is just to consider the age of the people that you’re working with when you say this. I am using the term — the term right now is called “geriatric,” but it could be argued about the age it actually starts. A lot of resources point to 65 plus is considered senior adults, older adults, sometimes the term “elderly” is used, the baby boomers. Something else I learned is someone who is 90 plus is considered “aged”. That’s the proper medical term.

AH I had no idea.

SS I know. Right? I was like ooh, yes. So there’s all different types of — I used the term “facilities.” There’s different types of facilities. What you have to consider is who’s living in these places and how you can best serve them with your massage skills. For example, there’s an independent living, so it’s pretty much independent apartments. There’s kitchens inside and people are living there, maybe with their spouse, maybe they’re widowed, maybe they’ve never been married, but they have the ability — you know, there’s dining services and stuff provided, but pretty much they’re independent. So as a massage therapist, you can think about you could go to their apartment to provide a massage. Or these facilities, a lot of them now, newer ones, are building spas and gyms within them, so sometimes there’s this little suite that’s being put in there for massage or for other types of — I don’t know what else they’d have come in. Sometimes podiatry can come in or different medical services, and so there’s a shared space there. That gives you a potential space as a massage therapist. Another type is the assisted living, which is where people need assistance, obviously, need assistance with their daily activities of living, and a lot of times there’s food — all the meals are provided — and their mobility may be a little more challenged. They may need wheelchair, walkers, things like that. Then from there goes into skilled nursing, and that is just all the nursing cares are provided, medications are provided. And again, when you’re a massage therapist — this is where I really had to think about working in skilled nursing, which is an area I really enjoy working, is going into each resident’s room and what does that look like? What type of massage can you provide in a skilled nursing facility and for how long and who’s going to be doing the payments and things like that to consider. And then the last type of facility, which many times is included in these big campuses, is memory care. That’s where people with a diagnosis of dementia or Alzheimer’s — where, a lot of times, these are locked facilities, so the residents can’t get out and they’re kept safe just from wandering and things like that.

AH I had no idea it was so technical and diverse.

SS Yeah. It is. And it’s just interesting because it’s — depending on where the person is, sometimes age doesn’t matter. The age doesn’t matter. It’s more their ability to function in their daily activities determines the type of place that you would be living in. So it opens up a lot of different opportunities for massage, which is what I have been exploring over the last — I have been working at one place now for four years. And I think that’s one thing I want to emphasize is the persistence that’s required and also the willingness to continue to try new things, to meet different people, different staff members to see if there’s ways to expand the program and to continue to educate the staff members, because a lot of times they’ll be the people who are your biggest supporters if they see the benefits. If the nursing aides, the certified nursing aides, see the benefits of one of the residents gets a massage and their anxiety level drops for the next day, that’s really beneficial and they can report that in the chart. They can talk to the nurse about that, and that starts to build some of the benefits of being in these types of places. Another point to make, too, is just to build, like I said, to build the relationships with the staff because, not only there’s different types of places people live, there’s a whole lot of staff that do a lot to ensure the residents have a good quality of life. Like I said, the CNAs — the certified nursing assistants — you have the director of nursing who needs to be on board with what you’re trying to do. If you’re going into people’s rooms, there’s HIPPA issues and things like that. And just to explain to them what you’re doing and to have them advocate for you too. And also, a position I didn’t know about is activity directors and activity coordinators. There’s people whose jobs it is to find activities for the residents to do, whether it’s Wii bowling or they have spa days. That’s how, actually, I got into one place was they had spa days — so they get their nails — their fingernails done and they’re like hey, we could offer some chair massages. One lesson I learned, too, is you can’t bring in your big old, chair massage contraption thing because it’s too much. A lot of residents can’t get on or off a massage chair, so I have this great little device, I guess, it’s called a portable desktop face rest. I don’t know. Are you familiar with this?

AH I have seen that. I actually used one when I was going into a school for people with autism. I — yeah, I had one of those little, I think it was an Oakworks desktop — you kind of lean right into it. Super easy.

SS Yeah. And it’s great because — for especially for people who are in wheelchairs, you can just wheel them straight up to the table and they don’t have to do anything. They can just sit there and receive a massage. And even — I use it — for people in independent living who come for a 30-minute massage, I’ll use that, too, because sometimes getting up and down, even off a massage chair and/or a massage table, is too much work. And so they come into the massage room and there’s just this half-face-rest thing there and it decreases their stress tremendously that they don’t have to worry about getting clothes on or off — or clothes on or off, yeah, and they can just receive a massage. That was one of the big nuggets I learned about working in my own little office at those places.

AH Being able to adapt and give a massage in any particular environment in any particular position.

SS Exactly. Yeah. And how to think on your feet too. In memory cares — when I go into memory care — because people are like well, what do you do? Sometimes it’s shoulder massages. And two, when you work with people who have memory impairments, you have to be strategic in how you approach them because if you’re too sudden, you could cause them to get anxious. If you come from behind them, so there’s those types of things to consider. But a hand massage — giving a hand massage with the Pure Pro lotion. It works really good just because of the glide and it soaks into the skin really well. Or shoulder massage, neck massage. Just meeting the person where they are is really helpful.

AH So how did you get into — you mentioned you got into one of the facilities via a spa day situation. How have you developed relationships with other facilities?

SS A lot of it is just talking to people, talking to staff. What are the — another good person to become friends with is the person who works at the front desk because they know everybody and they know where the resident is. If someone isn’t showing up for their massage, they probably know where they are. They know the directors of nursing and the best way to meet them and approach them. And also, I recently just met with the CEO of a place, a facility. And also, just to keep in mind that some of these places are also non-profits, and so they have donors, sometimes, that are looking to give money or a way to give money for a direct cause and sometimes massage is one of those conduits to do that because it makes the donors feel good, and then they can provide the services of a trained massage therapist, which is beneficial too. And then sometimes — I have no problem training staff. If the staff, you know, like “I really want to be able to give a resident a hand massage, but I just don’t know how. I’m afraid I’m going to hurt them.” Just to reassure the staff “No, you can do this, too, and it would be really beneficial.” And to empower them, as well, which I found really affirming too.

AH Sweet. What else do we need to know? Is there anything else on your list of what massage therapists need to know about skilled nursing facilities?

SS Yeah. I think one thing is when you present yourself is to present yourself professionally. I think a lot of times we sell ourselves short of all the skills that we do offer and to go where you’re wanted. I learned this lesson. I was at one place and I just — when I would go there, just felt this edge of “I don’t know what this is” and I’m like, you know, I don’t think this is the right time for me to be here. When I stepped away from it, another opportunity became available. And my other point would be to don’t start for free. Don’t volunteer. I think that’s another snafu. Sometimes I find myself — I get into “I want everybody to benefit from massage and I’m going to work for free,” but when you really want to start charging, a place sometimes is not willing to pay for those services because you’ve already done it for free.

AH Yeah. Typically, somebody around the corner who will do it for free.

SS Yeah.

AH So getting in on the right foot and establishing yourself as super professional and worth payment is really, really important in any kind of situation. I would only imagine more so in skilled nursing facilities.

SS Yeah. It’s an amazing population of people to work with. I have met people who have been in World War II, in the Korean Wars, I learned how to do needlepoint from a 97 year old. [laughs] —

AH That’s awesome.

SS It’s just — they’re just a population — my heart just really loves working with them because they have so many unique stories to tell and a lot of times they don’t get to tell them to people much anymore. And it’s just — yeah, it’s been a great experience and it just — it’s a much-needed niche to use for massage skills.

AH And it’s only a niche that’s growing, really. The demand is only growing as the rest of the second batch of boomers age. I think this is more and more, I don’t know, a thing. There’s going to be demand for it, and we don’t always like to look at massage as an industry. We like to look at it as a career and a profession, but if we look at it as a service industry, which it is, and we look at the supply and the demand, there is only going to be a growing need for people who are highly skilled, who have continued their education past entry level, who have improved themselves and their professional skills to the point where they can relate to staff and medical staff at nursing facilities and such. It’s only growing and that’s a really big deal.

SS Yeah. And I think for me, too, it was one thing — I was so focused: I’m going to work in a hospital. I’m going to, you know, work in a hospital in this — like I said before, working with this population of people uses all of those skills, and it’s in a much more nurturing environment where that push isn’t there and yeah, the benefits. You can see the benefits. They’re almost instant sometimes.

AH All right. Well, thank you so much, Stacey. This has been really enlightening, and I will make sure that people have access to — I will make note of the Oakworks positioning system that we were talking about. I’m pretty sure it’s Oakworks. I hope it is now that I’ve said that three or four times. I will make a link to that in the show notes. I will give you a link to more information about Stacey and also a link to more information about Healwell, where you can get all kinds of training for this kind of stuff. If you like this information, come see more of it. Listen to more podcast episodes. Visit us at massagebusinessblueprint.com. If you have an idea for an episode or a topic for more in-depth interview episode, please feel free to email us podcast@massagebusinessblueprint.com. We are so appreciative of you listening and accessing our free resources and even becoming, if you decide, a premium member, where you have access to a whole bunch more resources and a whole community of premium members of which Stacey is one. And that’s all we have for today. Thank you so much, Stacey, for joining us and for sharing all of this information with is.

SS You’re welcome.

AH Everyone, have a great day. Bye.

SS Bye.