Complementary therapies or 'luxury' therapies? A nurse's experience in the use of complementary therapies in nursing practice

Complementary therapies have an increasing popularity. This case study explores the experience of a nurse who practises complementary therapies within the health care system where there is a still a widespread of skepticism within the medical profession. It is considered by the nurse that it is a 'luxury' to include these therapies in nursing practice.<br />

Constructing detectors in schema complementary space for anomaly detection

This paper proposes an extended negative selection algorithm for anomaly detection. Unlike previously proposed negative selection algorithms which directly construct detectors in the complementary space of self-data space, our approach first evolves a number of common schemata through coevolutionary genetic algorithm in self-data space, and then constructs detectors in the complementary space of the schemata. These common schemata characterize self-data space and thus guide the generation of detection rules. By converting data space into schema space, we can efficiently generate an appropriate number of detectors with diversity for anomaly detection. The approach is tested for its effectiveness through experiment with the published data set <i>iris</i>.<br />

Complementary therapies and diabetes

There is increasing recognition that people with diabetes use a range of complementary therapies (CT), for a number of conditions, but do not always inform their conventional health practitioners about their use. Controlling blood glucose levels in people with diabetes is important to reduce the consequent metabolic abnormalities and symptoms and the incidence of long-term complications. Conventional medical and nursing practitioners often incorrectly assume that they are used to control blood glucose levels, e.g. using herbal medicines to increase insulin production or reduce insulin resistance. CT can be beneficial for people with diabetes. They can also lead to adverse events. This paper describes the outcome of monitoring complementary therapy use in our diabetic outpatient services in 2001, the results of a focus group (n=10) to explore issues identified in the monitoring process and a survey undertaken with a convenience sample of diabetes educators (n=40).<br /><br />Twenty percent of patients used CT and there were three adverse events in the monitoring phase. Eight of the 10 focus group participants used CT and 16 of the diabetes educators used CT in patient care. Only one had a complementary therapy qualification.<br />

Complementary therapies in action - education and outcomes

A study investigated the use of aromatherapy hand and foot massage on 11 patients in a rural rehabilitation setting. An education programme for nurses, carers and family members was developed and implemented. Clinical outcomes - pain, anxiety, joint flexibility and skin condition were evaluated using Likert scales completed before, and after, treatment at three time points and open questions to ascertain patients' feelings about the treatments. Each patient had three treatments, making a total of 33 massages. A significant reduction in pain and anxiety was apparent after all three treatments (p=0.05). Changes in skin condition (softer and more resilient) were highly significant (p=0.01). However, there was no significant change in joint flexibility (p&lt;0.05). The main themes emerging from patients' comments were that aromatherapy massage facilitated communication, allowed emotional release and aided relaxation. Nine people undertook the education programme. They indicated that it covered appropriate information and they felt confident to deliver the aromatherapy massages, but the non-nursing participants would have liked more practice before they entered the clinical setting.<br />

Complementary therapies: considerations for diabetes care

Complementary therapies (CTs) are receiving increasing attention in mainstream health care. Over 50% of the global population between 25% 30% of people with diabetes use CTs. In addition, health professionals are increasingly incorporating CT into their practice or referring patients to CT practitioners. This paper explores the philosophy underlying CT, gives an overview of the types of therapies used, outlines the reasons people use CTs the risks benefits for people with diabetes. Copyright &copy; 2004 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.<br />

Use of complementary and alternative medicines by a sample of Australian women during pregnancy

<b>Background</b>: The use of complementary and alternative medicines (CAM) is growing in Australia, with women higher users than men. Yet, only a few Australian studies have explored the use of CAM during pregnancy.<br /><b><br />Aims</b>: To explore the use of CAM, the types of CAM practitioners consulted, physical symptoms/complaints for which CAM are used by a sample of pregnant Australian women, and women's perceptions of the efficacy of CAM in treating those complaints.<br /><br /><b>Methods</b>: Three hundred and twenty-one pregnant women, who volunteered for a study exploring women's well-being during pregnancy, completed a self-report questionnaire in their late second/early third trimester.<br /><br /><b>Results</b>: Seventy-three per cent of women had used at least one kind of complementary therapy in the prior eight weeks of pregnancy. Over one-third of the women had visited at least one alternative medicine practitioner during pregnancy. Approximately one-third of the women reported taking CAM to alleviate a specific physical symptom, with 95.7% of these women reporting they either got completely better or a little bit better with use of CAM; one quarter reported planning to use an alternative therapy to assist with labour preparation. Age, number of physical symptoms experienced, income level and level of education were not associated with greater use of CAM (P &lt; 0.05); however, women reporting more physical symptoms were more likely to consult a CAM practitioner.<br /><b><br />Conclusion</b>: Findings highlight the substantial use of CAM during pregnancy and the need to have all health professionals adequately informed about such therapies during this life stage.<br />