Nurses Communication With Patients on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Start Date
April 2020
End Date
April 2020
Major Field of Study
Nursing
Student Type
Undergraduate - Honors
Faculty Mentor(s)
Patricia Harris, PhD, RN, CNS
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
Research on the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) indicates that patients do not tend to disclose to their healthcare providers when they are using CAM. Studies suggest that the main reason for this nondisclosure is due to healthcare providers failing to ask their patients if they are using any care regimens outside of hospital prescribed treatments. This is a concern for the safety of the patient because healthcare providers need a full understanding of a patients treatments in order to offer the most effective, and safest care. There are times when CAM can interfere and are contraindicated with conventional medicines. In these cases, it is critical for healthcare providers to know what treatment plans their patients are following.
It is also important for healthcare providers to know all that a patient is doing to heal themselves, in order to correctly document the efficacy of medicines or treatments. For example, if a patient does not disclose an alternative therapy that the patient is using instead of the chemotherapy drugs the patient has been prescribed, the doctor will have false data regarding the efficacy/inefficacy of the chemotherapy drugs they believe the patient is taking.
With the importance of healthcare providers knowledge of CAM use being understood, it is clear that the next step is understanding why patients are not disclosing this information to their HCPs. Research has shown that many healthcare providers simply do not inquire whether or not patients are using CAM, and that nurses especially do not feel comfortable discussing CAM with patients so they hesitate to bring it up.
The primary research aims of this study are to see if nurses in the Bay Area feel confident discussing CAM with their patients, and if not, why.
Nurses Communication With Patients on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Research on the use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) indicates that patients do not tend to disclose to their healthcare providers when they are using CAM. Studies suggest that the main reason for this nondisclosure is due to healthcare providers failing to ask their patients if they are using any care regimens outside of hospital prescribed treatments. This is a concern for the safety of the patient because healthcare providers need a full understanding of a patients treatments in order to offer the most effective, and safest care. There are times when CAM can interfere and are contraindicated with conventional medicines. In these cases, it is critical for healthcare providers to know what treatment plans their patients are following.
It is also important for healthcare providers to know all that a patient is doing to heal themselves, in order to correctly document the efficacy of medicines or treatments. For example, if a patient does not disclose an alternative therapy that the patient is using instead of the chemotherapy drugs the patient has been prescribed, the doctor will have false data regarding the efficacy/inefficacy of the chemotherapy drugs they believe the patient is taking.
With the importance of healthcare providers knowledge of CAM use being understood, it is clear that the next step is understanding why patients are not disclosing this information to their HCPs. Research has shown that many healthcare providers simply do not inquire whether or not patients are using CAM, and that nurses especially do not feel comfortable discussing CAM with patients so they hesitate to bring it up.
The primary research aims of this study are to see if nurses in the Bay Area feel confident discussing CAM with their patients, and if not, why.
Comments
This presentation was accepted for the Scholarly and Creative Works Conference at Dominican University of California. The Conference was canceled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic