By Serena Agusto-Cox | News & Views
AACVPR’s 2024 Dr. Linda K. Hall Innovation Award went to Beacon Health System-Memorial Hospital’s acupressure and stress management education course at its cardiopulmonary rehabilitation (CR) center. As a part of its current rotation of education courses for rehab participants, Beacon Health’s CR team incorporated breathwork and acupressure techniques to teach vagal nerve regulation and stress management to patients.
Each year at the AACVPR Annual Meeting, the honor recognizes a program that uses creativity in patient care and program design to maintain excellence and expand services. “The AACVPR Membership and Affiliate Relations Committee would like to congratulate Beacon Health System-Memorial Hospital on their selection as the Linda K. Hall Innovation Award recipient. This team’s commitment to innovation and exceptional patient care is evident and inspires other programs to meet patient needs through creative programming,” said Lorri Lee, MHA, BS, CCRP, CEP, MAACVPR, who chairs the panel.
Beacon Health's Anna Pearson, CCRP, and her team are proud and excited about AACVPR’s recognition of their hard work. The exercise physiologist, who holds a Foundation Certificate for Insight Acupressure and is a Candidate for Zero Balancing Certification as well as a Candidate for Clinical Acupressure Certification from Insight Acupressure, says, “A lot of effort went into the program, and it has been well-received by our patients. We focus our program on empowering patients to take the initiative in their own healing journey, providing them with the tools to feel better. It is an honor to be recognized on a national level by the AACVPR.”
Importance of Stress Management During Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation
Many cardiopulmonary rehabilitation patients come to the Beacon Health program within four to six weeks after open-heart surgery. Some patients may experience high blood pressure and are unable to begin physical rehabilitation exercises until their blood pressure is lower and under control, leading to recovery delays. In other cases, patients experience a variety of emotions from depression to anxiety and are unsure how to handle those unexpected and often uncontrolled feelings.
According to Pearson, there are three basic types of rehab patients:
- Patients who have experienced previous health scares and are ready to get through their latest one and recover
- Patients who barely sit through the intake process without experiencing some kind of emotional reaction based on the information presented or the residual effects of their own surgical experience
- Patients who seem fine on the surface until they are connected to the monitors, at which point they are tachycardic or their blood pressure is high from internalized stress
“This is where a stress management program can provide patients with the methods to navigate their emotions and prioritize their mental health. When they are feeling better emotionally, they can stay on the recovery track toward better health,” Pearson notes. Patients need to hear from staff that what they are feeling is normal. “You need to meet the patient where they are, both physically and emotionally. When our team saw these patients unable to stop crying, breathing heavily when they entered the rehabilitation center, and unable to calm down, we knew we could do more to address their anxieties,” says Pearson. “The rehab process is more than just exercising.”
When to Introduce New Techniques to Anxious Patients
“For our pulmonary rehabilitation patients, breathing and acupressure tools enable them to regain control over their breath and anxiety,” explains Pearson. But these techniques can also help those who have “white coat syndrome,” which occurs when a patient has normal blood-pressure readings at home but high blood-pressure readings in a medical facility due to anxiety around the visit.
“During the initial rehab visit, staff can teach a patient some quick techniques one-on-one away from the group setting. Once a patient witnesses their own pulse rate and blood pressure improve, they see the value of the new skill and learn how to work with their own body to relax,” she adds. “It’s like a preview of the one-hour education session on acupressure and breathing techniques they will receive as part of our program. Twice a week, the program offers a two-hour session of one hour of exercise and one hour of education for all participants; vagus nerve and stress management instruction is just one course out of 12 that we offer our cardiac and pulmonary rehab patients.”
Once in the hour-long course, patients are given in-depth information about different methods they can use to reduce their own anxiety, blood pressure, and pulse rate, helping them regain control of their nervous system. “Techniques are taught so people can pick individualized methods to experiment and find the best fit for their situation,” explains Pearson.
Collaboration and Integration Are Keys to Better Patient Outcomes
Beacon Health’s Michiana Fitness Conference introduced Pearson to acupressure and breathing techniques used to reduce stress and engage vagal nerve regulation. She contacted the speaker on acupressure to provide her staff with more education on those skills and, since then, Pearson has received three certifications, all of which have made Beacon’s program more successful.
“We combine our hour-long education session with handouts and group interaction to help patients be creative in how they incorporate these methods into exercise cooldowns and home-exercise plans. The stress management program has empowered patients to take charge of their mental and physical well-being during their recovery journeys,” explains Pearson. “Our multidisciplinary team looks at each patient holistically, and in some cases, patients benefit from one-on-one breathwork or patient-led acupressure sessions.”