A Study on the Home Care Nurses' Perception of the Complementary & Alternative Therapy

가정전문간호사의 대체요법에 대한 인식

The purpose of this study is to predict the degree of taking the complementary & alternative therapy in the home care nursing service and provide basic data for the application of it. To accomplish this, degree of general recognition of the complementary & alternative therapy, experiences, degree of concern, applicability of the therapy, and educational need should be studied. This study is a descriptive research survey on the home care nurses working at 73 medical centers out of 125 nationwide who provide hospital based home nursing care. The data was collected from Sep. 20, to Oct. 20, 2004 by ChoiHeyran's questionaries (2002). The data was analyzed by the frequency and the percentage. The results of this study are as follows ; 1. The degree of pre-cognition on the complementary & alternative therapy is very high. Information about the therapy was mostly obtained through medias. Home care nurses understand that he desirable treatment is to practice medical treatment and complementary & alternative therapy simultaneously. While 50% of them have already practiced complementary & alternative therapy among their patients. The most commonly used therapy is Acupressure. And Home care nurses have open and positive attitudes about the complementary & alternative therapy as to answer they aye ready to recommend it to their patients. 2. Over half of the Home care nurses met patients taking complementary & alternative therapy. 94.5% of them think scientific diagnosis on the effect of the therapy. advice from the doctor. and the special working staff is required to apply it on to the home care nursing. 3. 68.5% of the Home care nurses have taken education on the therapy through general comprehensive instructions and supplementary. Most of them want to have a opportunity education on the therapy because they want to provide comprehensive nursing and diversified nursing service. The preferred educations are Hand acupuncture, Acupressure & Massage and Aromatherapy, in that order. Based on the above results, the followings are recommended. 1. A study that stipulates the types, applications, and efficiency assessment of the complementary & alternative therapy practiced by Home care nurses in the home care nursing care procedure. And systematic and scientific nursing intervention be developed.