Health care professionals’ interactions with cancer patients who use complementary and alternative medicine in Taiwan

Abstract

Summary Background The majority of cancer patients receive some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), and demand for is growing among this patient population. Purpose This study explored how health care professionals (HCPs) view and interact with people with cancer who use Methods An exploratory qualitative approach was employed to analyze data from 15 in-depth interviews with HCPs. Data analysis was based on grounded theory (GT) process, which includes levels of open, axial, and selective coding. Results The results showed four categories of interaction between HCPs and cancer patients who use These were as follows: personal experiences of using outcome determination to use family attitudes toward CAM and the role of in ward. The core category identified in this study was respect patient's autonomy to use CAM. Conclusion In this paper, we discuss interactions between HCPs and patients who use CAM, and factors that influence HCPs' views and responses to The development of skills to enable HCPs to understand patients' perspectives and assess usefulness of should be encouraged. The implications of our findings may thus benefit nursing education and nursing practice.