Positive Health Online

This special extended feature about Nursing in Complementary Medicine, written by recognised leaders in the various fields of nursing and midwifery, is intended to honour this hard work and thank nurses for their invaluable contribution in advancing the use of complementary treatments and thereby enhancing the lives of many patients recovering from illness, surgery and painful treatment regimes.

A hospital or clinic ward is a different world from the private treatment practice of a complementary therapist, who typically sees patients by appointment for a specified time period and performs a specific therapy. The nurse or midwife, by contrast, often works within an exceedingly hectic and frequently unscheduled routine, where any complementary treatment regimes need to be approved and integrated with other scheduled treatments and procedures. Not an easy task!

As eloquently expressed by Denise Rankin-Box, nurses, by using complementary therapies such as massage have helped to make life more bearable for patients such as David undergoing traumatic treatments such as “chemotherapy, which had removed from my life all the things that made it pleasurable: eating, drinking, having sex, playing sport and laughing.”

The Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital (RLHH) is dedicated to complementary medicine as an integral part of the NHS, and Sheena Wyllie discusses the professional issues and policies which are being developed and evaluated in order to achieve the integration of complementary therapies within the many constraints of an NHS Trust healthcare system.

Angela Avis presents the historical context and reviews the literature regarding the therapeutic use of massage within nursing, Hermione Elliott describes the way that nurses can work within a holistic framework, applying a broad range of therapies to nursing care, and Sylvia Baddley reminds us of the many issues raised for midwives by the increased demand for complementary treatment by pregnant women giving birth.

In addition to these important articles, we also publish a Nursing Research section in the Research Updates, containing a selection of research published by nurses about clinical practices involving a range of complementary therapies.

Complementary Medicine has a great deal to thank nurses for their tireless efforts to improve the lives of their patients using complementary therapies which are tactile, pleasurable and help to restore balance and health. I certainly feel that we are all their debt.