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R e p o r t

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Program Notes 2–4Administrators’ Corner 5Encore! 6Bedside Harp

Community Sounds 7Upcoming Events 7

THE BEDSIDE HARP

REPORTEdie Elkan, Founding Director Diana V. Nolan, Editor Neshaminy Medical Professional Center 4802 Neshaminy Boulevard, Suites 3–4Bensalem, PA 19020(PA) 215-752-7599; (NJ) 609-273-0068Facsimile: 215-752-0529

Page 1

T H E

Bedside Harp

’s Healing Sound Sessionsat Abington Memorial Hospital

alliative and geriat-ric care nurses,nurse administratorsand one doctor wereamong the seven whoreceived a 15-minutesound bath in the earlymorning hours of No-vember 11 at AbingtonMemorial Hospital,host to Bedside Harp

for the past three years.Working in a lavender-infused massage roomwith a bass therapyharp, Tibetan bowls, bells, tingshaws, tuningforks and a drum, EdieElkan, assisted by NancyBeal, delivered healingvibrations to thesehealthcare professionals just before their hecticday began.The outcomes of thesessions were remark-able. We asked eachrecipient to assess their stress and pain levels before and after their session, on a scale from0 (none) to 10. Of theseven, two reportedtheir “before” stresslevels at 9, one at 8,one at 7, two at 6, andone at 4. Astound-ingly, all of them reported a lowering of those levels, amount-ing to their feeling85.6 percent less stressafter the session. Painlevels were decidedlylower before the ses-sion: one was at 7, oneat 6, one at 4, two at 3,and two at 0. Again, allwith pain reported alowering of their levels,amounting to their feel-ing 86.6 percent less pain after the session.As meaningful werethe comments recipi-ents wrote at the bot-tom of their evalua-tions: “Wonderful!Extremely refresh-ing!!” “Great!! “Justtaking the time to breathe is good. A440 is my tone!”“Thank you for shar-ing your gifts!”“Relaxing. Enjoy-able. Felt tensionleave with the bells!”Topping off the daywas a forwarded mes-sage Edie receivedfrom Susan Kristniak, Nurse Manager of Pal-liative and PastoralCare Services. One of the recipients wrote toSusan: “I wanted totell you how much Ienjoyed the TLC this

. It was a hecticmorning, and the timespent relaxing and‘vibrating’ was wellspent. Edie said Iwould have a goodday; so far it is great!Anytime you need aspecimen, consider me. Thanks, onceagain, It was terrific!!”

2009 OCT YTD

Number of patientsin our host hospitalswho received liveharp therapy ses-sions lasting five or more minutes882 7,532Number of hours of live harp therapydelivered to pa-tients, their lovedones, staff anddoctors at our hosthospitals171.25 1,658

Newsletter Editor Leaving Bedside Harp

In 2003, my friend Nancy Beal told meabout an “amazing,inspiring woman” whowas teaching her to play the harp andneeded someone tohelp organize her new business. Next thing Iknew, I had been hired, before I even realized Iwas looking for a job.Over the last sevenyears, we have out-grown the spare bed-room where I started,the Great Room, thefirst outside office, andBedside Harp

keepson growing. My initialduties grew and ex- panded, too, and mostwere eventually passedon to others as I beganto focus on our de-tailed monthly reportsto the host hospitalsand to this quarterlynewsletter. Over theyears I have enjoyedgetting to know thoseof you I have profiledfor the newsletter andall of the interns whosereports I read everyday. As of January 15,I will be leaving to pur-sue other opportunities.I wish everyone contin-ued success. —

Diana Nolan, Editor

The Bedside Harp Report

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Page 2

THE BEDSIDE HARP

REPORT

Wadsworth, Senior Vice President,Chief Nursing Officer of AbingtonMemorial Hospital; Nina Rubin,Hospital Nutrition Services at TheValley Hospital; John Marcanto-nio, Director of Patient Satisfac-tion at Robert Wood Johnson Uni-versity Hospital at Rahway; andDiane Grillo. Administrator after administrator sang the praises of our programs and our work as weat Bedside Harp soaked up all thewonderful compliments and mov-ing stories.The 2009 graduates who workedtheir internships at Abington Memo-rial Hospital included Pat Craig,Certified Mastery Harp Therapist,Hospital Intensive; Jane Oskutis,Hospital-Certified Harp Therapist;Diane Pechansky, Hospital-CertifiedMaster Harp Therapist; and KathyPlatt, Certified Harp Therapist, Hos- pital Intensive.Those who worked their intern-ships at The Valley Hospital in-cluded Jan Lucas, Hospital-CertifiedHarp Therapist; and Jim Sutherland,Hospital-Certified Harp Therapist.From Robert Wood Johnson Univer-sity Hospital at Rah-way, Patricia Steb- bins, Certified HarpTherapist, HospitalIntensive; and fromRobert Wood John-son University Hos- pital Hamilton, JanetZimmerly, Hospital-Certified Master Harp Therapist.Our instructional students, certifi-cation interns and graduates, instruc-tional mentors, professional harptherapists and administrators were thenall honored with a different color rose.The program ended with Cantor Marlena Taenzer singing

And YouShall Be a Blessing

by Debbie Fried-man, and a beautiful benediction deliv-ered by Sister Jane Urban.Once the formal ceremonies hadended, everyone enjoyed a spectacu-lar spread of delicious wraps andmacaroni salad, decadent browniesand cookies. The day, as the sixcelebrations before it, left everyoneat Bedside Harp all the more deter-mined to continue to make a differ-ence in healthcare throughout thiscountry.On Sunday August 16, a warm sunnyday in Mercerville, NJ, bagpiper JaimeBryson led an entourage of new gradu-ates and their teachers into the audito-rium of Robert Wood Johnson Univer-sity Hospital Hamilton’s Center for Health and Wellness. Sister Jane Ur- ban, HCHT, led a moving invocation before Diane Grillo, Senior Vice Presi-dent, Chief Learning and Communica-tions Officer of RWJUH Hamilton,and Edie Elkan welcomed everyone inattendance. Bedside Harp’s 7

annualgraduation, graciously hosted byRWJUH Hamilton every year, cele- brated the achievements of eightgraduates.The conference of certificationswas preceded by the presentation of the 2009 Bedside Harp

Living Leg-end Award to Diane Grillo. Diane,who along with Diann Mancuso, nowDirector of RWJUH Hamilton’s Cen-ter for Health and Wellness, first metEdie in October 200, saw the birth of Bedside Harp at RWJUH Hamilton inFebruary 2002, and has been therethrough the years, cheering and inspir-ing all who play at her hospital.Speakers included Barbara

Bedside Harp

’s 7

Annual Celebration and Graduation

This winter’s offering of our onlineethics course “Conversations on Ethicsfor Harp Therapists,” will be runthrough Bucks County CommunityCollege and will, for the first time, beopen to anyone wishing to enhancetheir understanding of the responsibili-ties and challenges facing harp andother integrative modality therapistsworking in healthcare today.Highly interactive, substantiveand thought-provoking, this coursereceived high marks from all whotook it in its pilot form last winter.Many, in fact, believed it should be arequired course for all adults from allwalks of life.The Bucks County CommunityCollege course code for "Conversations on Ethics for HarpTherapists" is WSMCE 4020 C30and the course is scheduled to runfrom January 4 through March 29,2010. Our main text is

The Ethics of Touch

, by Ben E. Benjamin, Ph.D.and Cherie Sohnen-Moe.Requirements include frequent(at least twice weekly) online re-sponsive postings on a discussion board, journaling (this will not beturned in) and a reflective paper atthe course’s end. The reflective paper will be a summary of what youfeel you received from this course of study. This course is a prerequi-site to all subsequent courses inBedside Harp’s mastery level of harp therapy certification. Cost is$250.00 payable to Bucks CountyCommunity College. Registrationdeadline is December 15, 2009.You may register by callingCarol Mikulski, Executive Direc-tor, Continuing Education, BucksCounty Community College at215-504-8578. Once you haveregistered, please contact Shan-non Barletti at Bedside Harp

at215-752-7599 to confirm thatyou will be joining us in thisonline offering.

Conversations on Ethics Now for Harp and Other Therapists Everywhere

Diane Grillo

Page 3

VOLUME 6, NUMBER 4

We remain the ONLY hospital inPennsylvania who offers this wonder-ful service joined by the following New Jersey hospitals: Robert WoodJohnson University Hospital Hamiltonand Robert Wood Johnson UniversityHospital Rahway, The Valley Hospitaland St. Clare’s Hospital.The graduates, all students, certi-fied harpists and master harp therapists take the Oath of Servicespeaking it aloud for all of us tohear. The oath speaks to the use of the harp, utilizing words like serve,honor, understanding, compassion,commitment to a lifetime of learn-ing, respect, privacy, confidence,work of the soul, special obliga-tions to all my fellow human be-ings and may I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of mycalling….This was my third harp graduationsince first bringing Bedside Harp tous in March 2007. The students whohave played for our patients repre-sent thousands of hours. I have beentold so many stories from patients,

Letter from the Chief Nursing Officer at Abington Memorial Hospital

Following this year’s graduation cele-bration, Barbara Wadsworth, Chief Nursing Officer at Abington Memorial Hospital, published the following let-ter in the

Nurses Notes

publication for Abington staff:

Dear Colleagues,As I returned from Bedside Harpgraduation on Sunday afternoon, Iwas again reminded how specialAbington Memorial Hospital is to usand our community. We had four graduates complete their certificationand several of them traveled over 100miles each time they came to play atour hospital. One of our newest stu-dents was a patient in our hospital andreceived a visit from the harpist. Shewas so moved by the experience she isnow herself taking lessons.The gradation is like no other,welcomed with a harp circle, a piper (bagpiper) plays the procession asthe graduates enter and each hospi-tal that is fortunate enough to haveBedside Harp speaks and confersthe certificates.families, staff and physicians depict-ing how they were sincerely touched by an experience with the harpist.Each story has a small elementunique to that patient or situation.Even the music is individualizedand touches the hearts of our pa-tients and families.This year we begin a research project on our stroke unit to en-gage patients with the smallest of harps to improve their cognitionand motor skills immediately fol-lowing a stroke. We believe thevibrations of the harp and the en-gagement of the patients may re-store their function. This study isthe first of its kind.Edie Elkan, Founding Director of Bedside Harp is a living angel who brings this gift and serves our pa-tients in a very special manner. Iknow you will agree when I tellyou—WE ARE FORTUNATE!!and blessed in many ways.Warmest regards,

—Barbara WadsworthChief Nursing Officer

Inspired by her certification studentsand fueled by her lifelong passion for writing (she holds a BA with a con-centration in nonfiction writing), itseemed rather logical that Edie would be drawn to writing guided imageryscripts. Over the past several years,she has written scripts for forgiveness, peak performance and wellness. Acouple of years ago, when she was preparing for her own gallbladder sur-gery—her first surgery ever—she feltthe need to have someone else guideher through her presurgical fears. KayMengers pointed Edie to Belleruth Naparstek. Not only did Edie respondmarvelously well to Belleruth’s sur-gery preparation CD, she wanted tofind out as much as she could aboutthe marvelous lady who so well pre- pared her for her procedure.Belleruth Naparstek, a psycho-therapist, is a nationally recognized pioneer in guided imagery and intui-tion. Her best-selling first book,

Stay-ing Well with Guided Imagery,

is awidely used and respected primer for medical professionals and health con-sumers. Her second book,

Your SixthSense,

has been translated into severallanguages and has been called one of the most comprehensive and thought-ful looks at the nature of intuition.

Your Sixth Sense

has now been added to our required mastery book list.When Edie learned that Belleruthwas scheduled to present a two-dayworkshop in Alexandria, VA, she im-mediately registered for the event.Edie reported that the workshopwas “singularly the best I’ve ever at-tended anywhere with anyone. Belle-ruth is agracious,generousteacher whosharedher wis-dom onguided imagery, drawing from her richexperience and far-reaching researchin the field. The workshop was asmuch experiential as it was didactic.Belleruth would lead the group in aguided meditation and afterwards de-construct the script—showing us, symbol by symbol, metaphor by metaphor,why she placed what she placed intothe script.” Having now sat at the feetof this wise and highly creative master,Edie is already planning future guidedimagery projects.

Edie Elkan Trains with Belleruth Naparstek

Edie Elkan and Belleruth Naparstek