Alternative health care sneaking in through the back door

The aim of this study is to investigate complementary and alternative health services (CAHS) in relation to official health services (OHS) in Iceland. For this purpose, interviews and participant observation to explore nurses’ experience of working with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) w...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Guðmundsson, Sveinn
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:Icelandic
Published: School of Social Sciences 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/tf/article/view/3866
Description
Summary:The aim of this study is to investigate complementary and alternative health services (CAHS) in relation to official health services (OHS) in Iceland. For this purpose, interviews and participant observation to explore nurses’ experience of working with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) were used. Despite the lack of an official policy on the use of CAM within health institutions, some health professionals in Iceland have found a place for them in their practice. The respondents demonstrate a great interest in CAM and use it in various ways. If their workplace is positive toward CAM therapies, some of them try to practice it there. If CAM therapies are not positively received, the nurses feel they must hide their interest in the therapies or practice them outside of the official health care system. All the nurses in the study mentioned a lack of policy and research on CAM and want to see more cooperation between OHS and CAHS. The state of affairs in these matters is that neither plural nor integrated medicine reigns. Iceland is therefore in an intermediary state. Co-operation is ongoing in some ways, but not in others. Í þessari grein verður greint frá rannsókn á stöðu óhefðbundinnar heilbrigðisþjónustu í tengslum við opinbera heilbrigðisþjónustu á Íslandi. Rannsóknin var unnin m.a. með viðtölum við hjúkrunarfræðinga og þátttökuathugunum þar sem litið er til reynslu hjúkrunarfræðinga af því að vinna með óhefðbundnar eða viðbótarmeðferðir. Þrátt fyrir skort á opinberri stefnu um notkun óhefðbundinna og viðbótarmeðferða á heilbrigðisstofnunum hefur hluti íslenskra heilbrigðisstarfsmanna fundið þeim stað í starfi sínu. Helstu niðurstöður rannsóknarinnar benda til þess að hjúkrunarfræðingarnir í rannsókninni sýni óhefðbundnum og viðbótar[1]meðferðum talsverðan áhuga og noti þær á ýmsa vegu. Ef vinnustaður þeirra er jákvæður í garð meðferðanna reyna sumir hjúkrunarfræðinganna að beita þeim þar. Ef svo er ekki finnst hjúkrunarfræðingunum þeir þurfa að leyna áhuga sínum á þeim og/eða vinna á eigin vegum ...