Student nurses, midwives and health visitors' attitudes, knowledge, and experience of complementary and alternative medicine in Hungary

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IntroductionComplementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has become an important part of healthcare. This study aimed to compare three groups of health care students' attitudes towards, knowledge of, personal use of, and opinions about the integration of CAM into higher education and health care in Hungary. Comparisons were made between those participating and those who did not participate in a Complementary Medicine (CM) course as an optional course during student training. MethodsA survey of the 314 full time students (nurses, midwives and health visitors) were asked to take part in an online survey using a self-complete questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. ResultsStudents' attitudes towards CAM were positive. The most commonly known alternative methods were massage, relaxation, acupuncture, herbal medicine and meditation. The most commonly personally used and perceived as being effective CAM modalities were herbal medicine, massage and relaxation. Most students believed that the integration of CAM into higher education and into health care is necessary. There were no differences in attitudes towards CAM between students who participated and those who did not participate in the CM course. Participants considered the course to be useful and reported higher knowledge about three CAM modalities and preferred formal education as information sources. ConclusionHealth care students are open to learning CAM. Increasing the number of health care students in the CM courses would result in ensuring that future health care professionals obtain reliable knowledge about CAM practices which may in turn make their work more effective.