Abstract
BackgroundIntegrating complementary medicine into medical care promotes patient-oriented care. A well-informed and collaborative professional healthcare team is essential for effective and patient-safe implementation of these methods. At present, the skills for patient counseling, therapy and care regarding complementary medicine vary among the professional groups involved. Professionals generally feel that they are not sufficiently qualified in this area. Curricular concepts for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) are virtually non-existent in undergraduate interprofessional training. The aim of this study is to initiate a consensus-building process between various experts (professionals, students, patient and faculty representatives) in order to identify which topics should be the focus of such a curriculum.MethodsA three-round Delphi study was carried out from March 2018 to March 2019 to compile the experience and knowledge of experts in the field of integrative patient care and interprofessional education. Sixty-five experts from Germany and German-speaking Switzerland with various professional backgrounds and experiences were asked to name general content, therapy methods and treatment reasons which should be addressed in interprofessional seminars. In the subsequent rounds these were rated on a seven-point Likert scale. The ratings were assigned to relevance groups and discussed in a final workshop in July 2019.ResultsThe response rates for the three rounds were 76% (n = 50), 80% (n = 40) 90% (n = 36); and 21% (n = 11) for the final workshop. The experts suggested that topics could be aligned along the most common treatment reasons such as insomnia, generalized pain, fatigue and back pain. However, it is important that students also receive an overview of the evidence base for different therapeutic concepts, especially in the field of classical natural medicine, acupuncture and mind-body medicine, and that they get an overview of the effects and interactions of frequently used procedures.ConclusionConsensus was reached among the various experts on the most important topics for an interprofessional CIM curriculum. The systematic evaluation of the topics in this study can help to create a curriculum that achieves a high level of acceptance among teachers, lecturers and students, and thus facilitates implementation at universities and medical faculties.
Highlights
Integrating complementary medicine into medical care promotes patient-oriented care
In Europe and North America, complementary medicine is often used for health-related problems such as pain, allergies and oncological diseases, in addition to biomedical therapy and care [2], and is increasingly included in clinical guidelines [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]
The majority of the health professionals perceive their knowledge as low and they do not feel able to advise patients appropriately [12,13,14,15]. They express their interest in integrating complementary medicine content into their undergraduate studies [16, 17] and the need to learn more about the roles of other health professionals in providing Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CIM) [18, 19]
Summary
Integrating complementary medicine into medical care promotes patient-oriented care. A wellinformed and collaborative professional healthcare team is essential for effective and patient-safe implementation of these methods. The request for additional therapy options often emanates from the patients and is sometimes applied on their own initiative, without consulting professional providers or even disclosing the application to them [10] This entails considerable risks for the patients because complementary procedures have side-effects and interactions with conventional treatment. The majority of the health professionals perceive their knowledge as low and they do not feel able to advise patients appropriately [12,13,14,15] They express their interest in integrating complementary medicine content into their undergraduate studies [16, 17] and the need to learn more about the roles of other health professionals in providing CIM [18, 19]
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