Self care CAM practices and the response of CAM use in patients

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has grown to be a major branch of health care in the west, as well as becoming a multi-billion dollar industry and has had a fairly strong utilization in nursing students and faculty. Although, many students noted that their Self-Care practices had changed during the pandemic, 89.6% of our students noted that they focused on self-care. Although 70% compared to 76.5% of students in 2017 noted that they were users of CAM, 63.1% of the students found CAM somewhat to very effective while 7.35% were neutral about the effectiveness and 1.47% found CAM very ineffective. It has been interesting to see how well nursing students support CAM utilization in their clients and patients. While 83.94% of the 2017 respondents noted that they support CAM use among their patients, only 76.4% of our current students supported CAM use. Amazingly, 23.5% were neutral in their support of CAM practices in their clients/patient, while 4.4% noted themselves as uneasy in the use of CAM practices among their clients/patients. In these recent times when hospital access has been curtailed for clients, and training limited for students, health care practices of both are essential in maintaining good health and preventing unnecessary illness. Reviewing current self-care practices may assist us in support of good health care practices in our students and with their clients and patients.

Audience Take Away:

1. Identify CAM practices.
2. Describe common CAM practices for nursing students in Hawaii.
3. Identify CAM practices that may be viewed as supportive of good health.