Complementary and alternative therapies: a new frontier for nursing education?

The field of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is relatively new to Western health care and scientific research. The American public is embracing the use of CAM, and consequently, health care professionals will have to integrate these therapies into their professional practice. With the addition of basic CAM components to the newest NCLEX-RN blueprint, nursing education programs at all levels must incorporate CAM into their curricula. There are challenges to be faced with the implementation of added content, but nurse educators have successfully faced these challenges in the past. Specific strategies for integrating CAM topics into nursing curricula are discussed.