Surveys  Nursing
UK

Nursing practice and complementary medicine - the largest ever UK survey

In September 1995 the Alternative Health Information Bureau in conjunction with the Nursing Times, instigated the largest survey of Nurses in respect to alternative and complementary medicine ever undertaken. Readers of the Nursing Times were invited to complete a detailed questionnaire about their attitudes toward complementary therapies to give an insight into the current state of these therapies within nursing practices as well as what nurses feel the role of these therapies should play in primary health care. 

Nurses, of course, have perhaps more interaction with patients than any other health care professional; they are therefore in the unique position of being able to respond to the needs and wishes of patients, and they see at first hand the effects of complementary therapies within the NHS. The questionnaires were sent to the Alternative Health Information Bureau for a detailed breakdown and computer analysis.

A total of 393 nurses responded to the survey of which over 40% were staff nurses, the remainder being a variety of other nursing professionals including Charge nurses (8%), Midwives (5%), students (5%). The survey found that:-

•  58% of the respondents stated that they used complementary therapies in their work and 89% stated that they used complementary therapies at home. The therapies most commonly employed at work were massage (used by 40% of the nurses) and aromatherapy (used by 34%) with the next most popular being reflexology (used by 10.5%) and Therapeutic Touch (8%).
  
• The therapies were used to help treat a variety of conditions from arthritis to cancer, but the most common conditions treated were stress, relaxation and anxiety, pain relief, insomnia, pregnancy and palliative care.
  
• 88.5% of the nurses who has used complementary therapies stated that they had seen a definite improvement in the patient’s condition as a result of the therapy employed with only 2 (less than 1%) saying they had not seen any improvement.
  
• Of the nurses who had used complementary therapies at their work, 88% said that they had undergone recognised training programmes. 
  
• 14% stated that they had requested and been refused permission to incorporate complementary therapies into their place of work.
  
• 88% stated that they recommend complementary therapies to patients (often - 30%), (occasionally - 58%). And 81% of those recommendations were based upon first-hand experience.
  
• 29% of the nurses said that they thought complementary therapies could help cure disease, 94.4% said that the therapies could improve the quality of a patient’s life, and 76% said that they thought the therapies could also give patients hope.
  
• Of those nurses who had never used complementary therapies, 92% said that they would like to know more about them.

The survey clearly indicates that alternative and complementary therapies are being used extensively (especially massage, aromatherapy and therapeutic touch) by nurses in their work and many other therapies such as Bach Flower remedies, herbal medicines and homœopathic medicines are being used by them at home. The levels of success of the treatments matches the recent Which? study which found that 82% of people who had used complementary therapies stated that they had been cured or significantly benefited from the treatment received.

It is an encouraging insight into the attitude of the nursing profession in the UK which gives a strong indication that, if nurses opinions are valued by the health authorities, complementary therapies have a valuable and significant role to play within hospital settings.

 Alternatives In Health Dec 1997