CPTC Students Celebrate Nurses Week with Massages

The nurses at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tacoma received some hands-on personal care of their own last Wednesday as the Clover Park Technical College Massage Studies program offered on-site massages to celebrate National Nurses Week.

CPTC sent a group of 16 students to the hospital campus, where they spent about six hours offering free seated chair massages to the nursing staff. The program partners with CHI Franciscan for the event, as the company provides different perks to its nurses each day during the national recognition week.

“We’ve been doing this for probably eight years,” CPTC Massage Studies instructor Yvonne Meziere said. “We come in and provide chair massage therapy to as many staff members as we can. This time, we provided massages to about 90 nurses.”

The partnership provides a service to the nurses at the hospital and also offers students a chance to get professional experience outside the classroom. Students rotate between the reception desk and providing massages, as the program brought seven chairs to the event.

“It’s a great event for the students,” Meziere said. “They get to work with other health care providers. The hospital writes a letter of appreciation and each student can get a copy to go in their resume packet. It’s a very well-received event and a neat collaboration.”

The American Nurses Association declared the week of May 6-12 as the national week to celebrate and elevate the nursing profession in 1993, according to the ANA website. The week offers a time for people to recognize the impact and contributions of America’s nurses, and the celebration ends on May 12 – Florence Nightengale’s birthday – each year.

To learn more about CPTC’s Massage Studies program, click here.