Nursing students' willingness to use complementary and alternative therapies for cancer patients: Istanbul survey

It is important for student nurses to be knowledgeable of the complementary and alternative therapies and to provide accurate information to both cancer patients and other health care professionals. This study examined the nursing students' willingness to use these therapies, availability of sources of information, use of the therapies for self care, opinions about the integration of these therapies into nursing curriculum, and analyzed the differences among the responses. A self-administered questionnaire was offered to 640 nursing students in Istanbul, descriptive statistics were used, and comparisons among responses were made with chi-square test. Willingness to use for cancer patients was highest for nutritional therapy (76.1%), breathing therapies (74.5%), and massage and manipulation-Tui Na, in which pressure and touch are applied to the body (71.9%). Use of information sources was highest for nutritional therapy (75.6%), breathing therapies (71.9%), and massage and manipulation-Tui Na (62.3%). Over half of the nursing students used music therapy (54.2%), and massage and manipulation-Tui Na (53.6%) for self-care. Breathing therapies (87.2%) were the most desired therapy chosen to be included in nursing curriculum. The statistically significant differences were found among the responses related to use five therapies for care and related to desired three therapies to be included in nursing curriculum. Although students had not previously been exposed to these therapies use with oncology patients, many of students expressed a desire to integrate therapies learning into nursing curriculum. The more student nurses document high risk patients, the more effective strategies will be developed by other health care professionals.