NWHSU’s CACM Wraps Palliative Care Project with Mayo Clinic

NWHSU’s College of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine recently wrapped up a three-year consulting Palliative Care Project with Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

“The collaboration was an exciting project from the beginning,” said Jessica Frier, DAOM, dean of the College. “The intention of everyone was to create simple, yet highly effective and evidence informed treatment options for patients.”

The result of this Palliative Care Project with Mayo Clinic was the development of a hybrid training program for nursing staff in Mayo’s Palliative Care department, utilizing acupressure auricular devices to support patients with symptoms such as pain, anxiety, digestive issues and insomnia. The long-term goals for this project are to cultivate care for palliative care clients, as well as establish more research on the efficacy of auricular acupuncture for the management of specific symptoms.

“We were intentional in how we designed the training to educate participants on the larger system of Chinese Medicine and whole-person care, while including important information on safety and efficacy,” explained Dr. Frier. “Considerable time was included for participants to learn proper technique, because specific point location and application improves clinical results and allows for retroactive research down the road.”

The team from NWHSU involved Barbara Gosse, Jennifer Connell, Kim Christensen, Colleen Moore, Victoria Huitt, and Jessica Frier. They created treatment protocols, an online training module, and hands-on reinforcement training curriculum.

“To me, the Mayo Clinic collaboration is a reflection of the mission and vision of Northwestern Health Sciences University,” shared Dr. Frier.

Story by Kit Harlow, Chiropractic Student