Complementary and alternative medicine: nurses' attitudes and knowledge

Despite significant evidence for the integration of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) into professional nursing practice, gaps exist regarding nurses' baseline knowledge, beliefs of efficacy, and learning needs for further education to facilitate the integration of CAM into nursing practice. The top three conditions which adults identified for using CAM were back pain, neck pain, and joint pain. CAM can offer nurses additional treatment options for managing their patients' pain and discomfort. The California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) identifies that nurses can help provide the missing link between conventional Western medicine and CAM therapies. Nurses cannot successfully advocate for CAM therapies, nor understand their patients' prior use of such treatments, unless they themselves are familiar with both the risks and the benefits of these practices. It is necessary to first establish nurses' baseline knowledge and beliefs related to CAM so that adequate educational programs can be initiated to help mitigate the barriers to incorporating CAM into the acute care setting. This descriptive study explores registered nurses' attitudes and knowledge related to CAM by using the Nurse Complementary and Alternative Medicine Nursing Knowledge and Attitudes Survey developed by Rojas-Cooley and Grant. Nurses in this study demonstrated limited self-reported knowledge of basic CAM terminology and CAM practices.