Veteran’s Day and the Importance of Music
Veteran’s Day and the importance of music
Veteran’s Day is SUCH an important holiday and observance for the USA. The men and women who have fought and labored in many other way for the peace and prosperity that our country enjoys, deserve to be honored on this important day.
Music has always played an important roll in the military and every branch of the military to this day has their own band, orchestra, chorus and smaller specialty groups like jazz bands, Big Band style bands and even classical chamber music ensembles.
The Robley Rex V.A. hospital here in Louisville, KY has a brass band ensemble composed of various surgeons, and physicians at that hospital. They play at parties, graduations and other functions and call themselves Top Brass. I think this is so clever and they really enjoy getting out of their medical scrubs and entertaining both colleagues and patients.
The Birth of Music Therapy
The modern-day field of Music Therapy actually began in a Veteran’s hospital in Kansas. It was toward the end of WWII, late 40’s, and in this Veteran’s hospital were many men suffering from what was called “shell shock” or “battle fatigue.” Today, these same men might be diagnosed with major depression or PTSD.
Each week, volunteers of various kinds would come to visit the men and try to engage them in calming, social interaction. Apparently the only volunteers that were successful with the Veterans were the musicians who came with Big Band music ensembles and played the music that brought back very positive memories of a happier time.
This behavior did not go unnoticed. When the musicians would come, men who never raised their heads or their eyes, would raise their hands, looks toward the musicians, sometimes smile, and sometimes would even sing along, or sway to the music! The nurses and doctors were astounded by this phenomenon but it happened weekly and was a dependable moment of healing and progress for the veterans.
With a few years, there was a new rehabilitation specialy in medicine; it was called Music Therapy!
Veteran’s Hospitals and Surgical Serenity Solutions team up to help Veterans
In 2014 Veterans Hospitals began doing business with Surgical Serenity Solutions. Our first product purchased by the hospitals was our preloaded headphones for surgical patients. Our first hospital VA customer purchased 100 of these headphones, loaded with the Classical Playlist. The patients understood that this music engaged rhythmic entrainment better than other music they might have thought they preferred such as popular music or country music. We educated patients and staff about the fact that purely instrumental music with a slow, steady pulse works best to get the patient through surgery with the least anxiety and least amount of pain perception.
Ten years later, in 2024, Surgical Serenity Solutions has gotten into Veterans Hospitals around the country. We now have 5 distinct playlists and 4 paths to provide our music to hospitals, surgery centers, birthing centers, chemotherapy, dialysis centers and pain clinics. Our playlists include Classical, Jazz, New Age, Lullabies, and Memory Care.
Patients can access our music with the original preloaded headphones, small MP3 players, downloadable apps, or each playlist can be licensed for a one-time annual fee.
A personal note
Every year when Veteran’s Day comes around I remember my dear father and how much our country meant to him. Although he survived WWII and the Battle of the Bulge, he was wounded and had a long and difficult recovery in the hospital in London.
Music was one the things that got him through, I think, and he loved teaching his children the songs that they sang while marching through Europe. We children loved hearing about his adventures and learning the songs they sang like “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” and “A Capital Ship.” I later learned that one of the reasons that soldiers sing while they march is because it keeps their energy level high and helps them to march in sync for very long distances.
My great-grandfather, James Grier White
Because my dear father, and my great-grandfather on his mother’s side were proud veterans and because of all the work we do with V.A. hospitals around the country, veterans will always have a special place in my heart.
How to get our Surgical Serenity Solutions music and products into YOUR hospital or clinic.
If you’re not sure which products might be best for your patient populations, please fill out this form
www.surgicalserenitysolutions.com/contact-us
To see all of the hospital products go to
www.surgicalserenitysolutions.com/hospitalheadphones
www.surgicalserenitysolutions.com/mp3players
To download one or more of our playlists and hear samples of each, go to www.surgicalserenitysolutions.com/calm
To all the living Veterans, thank you for your service!! To all the fallen warriors, thank you for paying the ultimate price for our freedom!!
Here is a close up of the researchers poster presentation. He reports that many of the nurses present at this conference were fascinated with this concept and will hopefully be trying them in their own facilities!
Research in peri
Surgical Serenity Solutions offers therapeutic music playlists in 5 distinct genres. This music has been curated by a clinical musicologist and undergone 3 clinical studies, all of which deemed it powerful at decreasing anxiety and pain perception. The music in available in 4 different formats:
Music therapists have a Bachelors or Masters in music therapy and are board-certified by their peers. They work in hospitals and clinics and sometimes they work in private practice. Music therapists traditionally work one-on-one with patients but occasionally do group therapy.
David Friedman, MD, Cleveland Clinic, Florida:
Thomas Mayo, MD, Anesthesiologist in Boston, MA:
Lisa Gallagher, MT-BC [board certified music therapist], Head of Music Therapy, Cleveland Clinic:
Michael Peck, MD, Anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins Suburban Hospital:
Arthur Harvey, DMA, Music for Health Services:
Insomnia seems to be a serious problem for lots of people these days. Although we do have a specific “Lullaby Playlist,” since these 5 therapeutic playlists were created for the surgical patient who is being put to sleep, any of them have a very soothing and soporific effect.
Veterans in the USA have had access to music therapy and music medicine since the late 1940’s after World War II ended. Thanks largely to the Veterans Hospitals, the modern-day field of music therapy was born.
The VA Hospital in Louisville, KY has just purchased 180 of our new MP3s and one of the playlists they are getting is the “Music for Memory Care” playlist. When I created this playlist, I included popular music from the 1900s, 1910’s, all the way through to the 1040s, when the Veterans were just returning from WWII. That generation loved “Tip-Toe Through the Tulips,” “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” and “I’ll Be Loving You, Always.”
Getting buy-in from physicians is crucial but we must also get that buy-in from the patients who use them and feel that they make a great difference:
In the last year, I have been invited to be on 7 difference podcasts, so I know that people are buzzing and it is very exciting!!
Does YOUR hospital use the Surgical Serenity Solutions headphones or MP3 players yet? If not, I strongly recommend getting them for your patients. The proof is there, social as well as empirical medical data. Just click on the link below to purchase either the headphones or the MP3 players! Your patients will thank you!
www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com/hospitalheadphones
www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com/MP3players