Establishing a Comprehensive Aromatherapy Program in Patient Care Settings

Since the profession began, nurses have sought to comfort through their healing presence and interventions. Clinical aromatherapy is an ancient practice finding new attention in modern-day health care to contribute to relief of symptoms of pain, anxiety and nausea. The use of complementary and integrative therapies is on the rise as clinicians and consumers seek to reduce the use of medications and the evidence-base for integrative therapies continues to expand. This article describes the development and introduction of a clinical aromatherapy program into a hospital system using a train-the-trainer model. Lessons learned from the process and future considerations are also discussed.