When I think about writing this final letter for Plastic Surgical Nursing, I turn into a middle school student who has trouble saying goodbye! Instantly, I am transported to a time when I was screaming the Boyz II Men lyrics at the top of my lungs in my bedroom with all my girlfriends as we reminisced the end of our middle school years! For those of you wanting a history lesson, "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday!" was written in 1975. Boyz II Men made it famous more than 15 years later in 1991, but I digress....
Admittedly, referencing lyrics to a song I loved during my middle school years may be a juvenile way to deal with saying goodbye to my ISPAN presidency, but I challenge each of you to tell me you didn't immediately bust out singing those lyrics in your head or perhaps even out loud when you saw the title of this letter!
Music is a powerful way to deal with stress and emotions. A song can transport you to your "happy place" and is also a coping mechanism to help fight a bad mood. I find myself using music therapy as a way to get through the good and the bad of life. This year, I have been blasting music in my car in a way I never did before.... Before "you know what" happened. Whisper silently with me, "The Corona."
Enduring not only a pandemic but also other changes in my life over the past year has led me to realize how important music is as a strategy to help me cope with both the joyful and difficult times.
Jodi Picoult, author of the bestselling book "Sing You Home," said,
Music therapy, to me, is music performance without the ego. It's not about the entertainment as much as it's about empathizing. If you can use music to slip past the pain and gather insight into the workings of someone else's mind, you can begin to fix a problem. (Music Therapy Association, 2020)
Dr. Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings, said, "I regard music therapy as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders-Parkinson's and Alzheimer's-because of its unique capacity to organize and reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged" (Music Therapy Association, 2020).
Plato said, "I would teach children music, physics and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning" (Music Therapy Association, 2020).
Matthew Lee, the former chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine and medical director of the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, said,
Music therapy has been an invaluable tool with many of our rehabilitation patients. There is no question that the relationship of music and medicine will blossom because of the advent of previously unavailable techniques that can now show the effects of music. (Music Therapy Association, 2020)
The quotes and scientific evidence about the benefits of music are endless. Although I recognize I am ending one chapter of my ISPAN legacy and beginning another, I want to express my appreciation to each of our members for trusting me to guide us through the good and bad times. Actually, I am going to classify the current times as not bad, simply different ... new ... a challenge for sure! So pardon me while I roll down the windows, blast my music, and continue to enjoy these remaining moments as the President of ISPAN.
Amanda Bailey, MSN, ACNP-BC, CWS, CPSN, ISPAN-F
ISPAN President
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