Cancer nursing: complementary/conventional approaches combine

Abstract: With increasing technological advances in the management of cancer, people are now living longer. This has resulted in a recognition by health care professionals that more emphasis is needed to be placed on quality of life as well as longevity. Increasing interest has been focused on complementary therapies as adjuvants to traditional modes of cancer care. Within health care institutions nurses will play a key role in the process of integrating complementary therapies with conventional approaches to cancer care. To prepare nurses for this extended role, changes are needed in their basic training programmes. This article describes a programme of integration at the Hammersmith Hospital. It also looks at the need for cornplementary therapies to be evaluated through research, to increase validity as a basis for proposals to be put forward for long-term National Health Service funding.

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