Research implications for alternative health therapies

Nontraditional health practices have gained in popularity during the past 10-15 years. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of many nontraditional approaches have been inadequately investigated. Furthermore, tradition research protocols often have fallen short in providing satisfactory strategies for these types of investigations because the nature of the personal belief system between patient and provider has not been examined. The authors discuss the implications for triangulation techniques in nursing research related to nontraditional treatments. Six types of triangulation are defined and methods for utilizing these techniques are explained.