[Complementary health practices and challenges of its applicability in hospital: nurses' point of view]

This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory research, aiming to describe the set of ideas and knowledge that guide the use of complementary and integrative health practices (CIHP) by nurses, and analyze the challenges facing the applicability of these therapies by nurses in the hospital setting. The subjects were nurses in public hospital institutions of Rio de Janeiro. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews and a technique of creativity and sensibility called Almanac. The results showed that the hegemony of the biomedical model in the formation and performance of health professionals hinders implementation of CIHP in hospital. However, as this model does not account for the complexity of the human being emerges the possibility of sharing with CIHP in care aiming, therefore, at comprehensiveness of the human being.