Complementary alternative therapies: a view on knowledge of nursing students

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the knowledge of nursing students on the use, by nurses, of Complementary Alternative Therapies, especially acupuncture, and the information obtained during the Nursing undergraduate course. It is a prospective and descriptive study carried out with 106 Nursing students from a private university in São Paulo State in 2007. It was used an instrument to obtain the data that contained socio-demographic data, data on formal and informal knowledge, the information source and legality of the use of TAC by nurses, particularly acupuncture. The analysis of responses was performed using single frequency. Data showed that 72.01% were female and 67.90% aged 18 to 25 years. The majority had knowledge about existence of TAC including acupuncture (34.04%). Nursing students stated that some kind of TAC can be used legally by the nurses such as therapeutic touch and acupuncture (15.76%), and mass therapy (11.05%). Data showed that the TAC is scarcely addressed in the Nursing course, and the students’ knowledge is achieved by common sense, and the majority does not know the support of National Nursing Council.