Oncology nurses' perspectives on unconventional therapies

Unconventional therapies have become increasingly popular with health care consumers in recent years. As patients seek information and attempt to make decisions about unconventional therapies, they often turn to nurses, askin g their opinion about certain therapies. The nurse's attitudes and beliefs about unconventional therapies very likely will influence the response to t he patient's inquiries. This work represents the findings of interviews wit h 48 nurses regarding their perspectives on unconventional therapies. Witho ut exception, all nurses interviewed ed emphasized the need for information regarding unconventional therapies to be readily available Sor patients an d health care professionals. The other themes identified in the interviews included the following: various people use unconventional therapies; people seek: unconventional therapies for a variety of reasons; communication abo ut unconventional therapies needs to be open; and conventional and unconven tional practitioners ought to work collaboratively. The participants interv iewed saw, a clearly defined role for nurses regarding unconventional thera pies.