Complimentary and alternative medicine in nursing - Essay Example

Most conventional teaching curriculums in nursing schools do not cover alternative and complementary. This creates a discord in the practice since nurses lack adequate information on the use of the various complementary and alternative medicine. The report, therefore, argues for the need for incorporation of the medicine in the curriculum to improve the productivity of nurses. Nurses are important people in the dispensation of health care services. Nurses handle patients and often give advice to patients either in the course of their treatment or during discharge.

Patients rely on their nurses for a number of factors key among which is the decision of the type of medicine to use in the treatment of particular diseases. However, nurses learn how to use conventional medicine a feature that makes complementary and alternative medicine a contentious issue in the practice. The discord that arises in the existence of the two types of medicine thus makes it important for colleges and universities among other institutions that train nurses to expand their curriculum in order to equip nurses with holistic information that enhances their suitability in the practice.

Complementary medicine just as the name suggests is a type of drug that works concurrently with the conventional drugs. While chemotherapy is the conventional mode of treating cancer, a patient may decide to use marijuana or may decide to go through acupuncture that alleviate anxiety and vomiting and nausea all of which are side effects of the process. Alternative medicines, on the other hand, are a non-conventional medicine that functions as the conventional medicine. The lack of such medicines in the curricula of nursing school is a fundamental policy issue in the modern society.

As shown in the above example, some patients often consider marijuana as a complementary medicine. The fact that marijuana is illegal according to the federal government