Ethereal chords wafted through the scent of disinfectant along the corridors of Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital recently, as Sharon Tremaine plucked the tune of “Amazing Grace” on a harp.

It's part of the hospital's music therapy program.

“I believe that the music creates a very healing environment,” said Mary Gish, a nurse who came up with the idea of using music to aid healing and a member of the American Holistic Nurses Association. “It invokes healing and helps with pain management.”

“Hearing it helps remove the focus of fear that people feel here,” said Pati Stinnett, who works in radiology. “It makes (patients) feel a little bit more relaxed, and every little bit helps.”

Fellow nurses enjoy the atmosphere it creates, too.

“It really helps to de-stress an environment that can usually be very stressful,” Stinnet added.

On Christmas Eve of 2006, Gish got a call from her sister, who was in the hospital for leukemia. She tearfully relayed to Gish that her doctor, his brother, and his two children had just come into her room, and offered to play her some music. She said that this was the most wonderful experience she had ever had.

“The love and joy that she got from this was amazing,” Gish recalled. “In a way, I think that call was perhaps my inspiration for starting the program.”

Even playing the music has an aspect of healing.

Harpist Tremaine learned to play in a cancer support group at Sierra Nevada. She is one of two musicians who can be seen in the halls three days a week.

“I play here to give back,” said Tremaine. But, “the amount that I give compared to what I get from it is like pouring a pitcher of water into a tidal wave. I get feedback from many people about how much they enjoy my playing here.”

Gish wants to start a formal music therapy program and explore other complementary therapies at the hospital, though for now, she is just happy to have the musicians on the floor a few days a week, she said.