Music Therapy

With modern advances in technology and knowledge of the human body and medicine, there are a variety of therapeutic and pharmacological treatments for post-operative pain. One treatment that is underexplored, however, is music therapy. 

Melissa Schneider, DNP, Professor of Nursing, decided to combine her love for piano with her nursing career and test the effects of music therapy on her orthopedic patients. Through this research, Schneider found that listening to music significantly decreased patients’ pain. She then decided to extend this topic of research to her nursing students at York College.

During the Fall 2017 semester, Schneider mentored students in a research class, taught by Margaret Marino, Ph.D., as they conducted a literature review on research related to music therapy. Through this review, students found a lot of focus on the use of music therapy with stroke patients. She hopes to turn their review into a full research study at York Hospital. 

This research on music in hospitals is not the first study Schneider has conducted with the help of students. In 2016, she conducted research on the use of technology in discharging stroke patients from hospitals. Two YCP nursing students helped gather data for the study. While no plans have been set yet for additional research, Schneider hopes to similarly include interested students in the study on music therapy. She noted that these research opportunities are beneficial collaborations as students get the chance not only to work with professors, but with nurses from York Hospital
as well.