Nurses' perspectives on unconventional therapies

Abstract

Unconventional therapies have become increasingly popular with health care consumers in recent years. As patients seek information and attempt to make decisions about unconventional therapies, they often turn to nurses, asking the nurse's opinion about certain therapies. The nurse's attitudes and beliefs about unconventional therapies quite likely will influence the response to the patient's inquiries. This article represents the findings of interviews with 20 nurses regarding their perspectives on unconventional therapies. Without exception, all nurses who were interviewed emphasized that information regarding unconventional therapies needs to be available readily for both patients and health care professionals. Other themes identified in the interviews included the following: Various people use unconventional therapies; people seek unconventional therapies for a variety of reasons; communication about unconventional therapies needs to be open, and a place should be found for unconventional therapies. The interviewees saw a clearly defined role for nurses regarding unconventional therapies.

Trends in Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Eastern Turkey

“…The results of the current study confirmed those of the previous studies (Eisenberg et al, 1998;Astin et al, 2000;Azaz et al, 2002;Herron and Glasser, 2003;Oldendick et al, 2000;Yoon, 2001 reveal CAM use to conventional physicians because of fear of getting a negative response. This supposition is supported by findings from earlier studies (Fitch et al, 1999;Gözüm et al, 2003;Salmenpera et al, 1998). Some therapies, such as certain herbs, can be potentially dangerous (Learner and Kennedy, 1992;Swanson and Facione, 1998) or might be dangerous when combined with conventional treatment that patients are already using (Cheraskin, 2000;Go et al, 2001).…”

Cancer CAM™: Web-Based Continuing Education for Health Professionals

“…Patients want providers to be interested in their requests, even if providers do not agree with their choice of therapy (Gray et al, 1998). However, doctors are less likely to initiate the discussion, and although nurses are interested in initiating dialogue, they often feel conflicted about their appropriate role (Damkier et al, 1998;Fitch et al, 1999;Gray et al, 1998). To better advise patients, nurses must first clarify their own values and beliefs about CAM (Damkier et al, 1998;Fletcher, 1992).…”

“…To better advise patients, nurses must first clarify their own values and beliefs about CAM (Damkier et al, 1998;Fletcher, 1992). Then they can initiate discussion, encourage questions and dialogue, and convey respect for the choices and opinions of patients and their families (Fitch et al, 1999;Fletcher, 1992;Sparber et al, 2000). Sparber et al (2000) also concluded that nurses could use in-house resources to evaluate patients' use of CAM and help them through referrals to staff who provide quality-of-life therapies such as massage and imagery.…”

“…Unlike doctors, nurses and patients place much of the blame for inadequate communication on providers (Fitch et al, 1999;Gray, Fitch, & Greenberg, 1998). Three factors seem to affect disclosure: (a) Patients may not disclose because they assume, or know from experience, that their conventional doctor will not be supportive; (b) many patients do not view their practices (such as prayer, support group, or massage) as relevant to biomedical treatment; and (c) they may not be asked, or asked appropriately, by their doctor about CAM use (Coss et al, 1998;Fitch et al, 1999;Gray et al, 1998;VandeCreek et al, 1999). Patients want providers who are responsive to, not dismissive of, their use of CAM for needs not met medically and who volunteer helpful information about CAM (Adler & Fosket, 1999;Coss et al, 1998;Gray et al, 1998).…”

Expériences d’infirmières en oncologie concernant l’utilisation, par les patients, de thérapies complémentaires et de thérapies parallèles

“…Dans une étude reposant sur des entrevues, 20 infirmières canadiennes soulignaient la nécessité pour les patients d'avoir accès à de l'information sur les thérapies complémentaires et parallèles et encourageaient la coopération entre les praticiens fournissant ces thérapies et les intervenants en soins conventionnels (Fitch, Gray, Greenberg, Labrecque et Douglas, 1999).…”