The Attitudes of Physicians, Nurses, Physical Therapists, and Midwives Toward Complementary Medicine for Chronic Pain: A Survey at an Academic Hospital

Publication date: Available online 21 June 2016 Source:EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing Author(s): Eléonore Aveni, Brent Bauer, Anne-Sylvie Ramelet, Yolande Kottelat, Isabelle Decosterd, Guillaume Finti, Pierluigi Ballabeni, Eric Bonvin, Pierre-Yves Rodondi Objective To assess the attitudes of physicians, nurses, physical therapists, and midwives toward complementary medicine (CM) at a Swiss academic hospital and toward its use for treating chronic pain. Design The cross-sectional survey took place from October to December 2013. Setting An e-mail sent to 4925 healthcare professionals (1969 physicians, 2372 nurses, 145 physical therapists, and 111 midwives) working at Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland, invited them to answer a web-based questionnaire. Results The questionnaire was answered by 1247 healthcare professionals (response rate: 25.3%). Of these, 96.1% strongly agreed or agreed that CM could be useful for the treatment of chronic pain, with more nurses (96.7%) and midwives (100%) than physicians (93.8%) agreeing that CM could be useful (P < .001 for both comparisons). Women had more positive attitude toward CM than men (97.8% versus 91.2%; P < .001). Of the respondents, 96.9% were strongly in favor or in favor of offering CM, especially hypnosis (89.8%), osteopathy (85.5%), and acupuncture (83.4%), at the hospital for treating chronic pain. Respondents listed migraine (74.7%), tension headaches (70.6%), and low back pain...
Source: EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing - Category: Complementary Medicine Source Type: research