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Confidence in the effectiveness of CAM therapy – attitudes and beliefs of health care professionals in Croatia

INTRODUCTION: Over the last few decades an increasing number of surveys have been published on the effectiveness of CAM therapies. But papers are rarely focused on the attitudes and beliefs about CAM efficacy or identifying reasons why certain techniques have been used. In Croatian scientific literature there are just few published papers about attitudes/beliefs about CAM among Croatian healthcare professionals. Without any attempt to advocate for one or the other side, this survey wants to open a dialog between both sides through understanding the attitudes and beliefs of health professionals about the reasons for using CAM and perception of (non)efficacy of most commonly used methods and techniques. AIM: Aim of the survey was to focus on the attitudes and beliefs about CAM among nurses, physiotherapists and sanitary engineers as healthcare workers through investigating their confidence in CAM therapy in toto, as well as in particular methods and techniques, and the attitudes and beliefs about the reasons to use CAM. METHODS: The study was conducted on a sample of 569 participants (173 nurses, 312 physiotherapists and 84 sanitary engineers) enrolled into study programs in the academic year 2017/2018. RESULTS: For most participants (38.8 %) CAM therapies include ideas and methods that classical medicine can profit from. The majority of the participants (63.8%) have pointed out that it is also very important „that patients' expectations, beliefs and values should be integrated into the health care process “, which is unfortunately rarely true in highly sophisticated, technologically superior, but alienated medicine of the 21st century. Considering that the participants are health professionals it is not surprising that to be mostly or completely effective, they have selected massage techniques (69.6%), chiropractic (47.1%), acupuncture (43.7%), yoga (41.1%) and medicinal herbs – phytotherapy (46.3%). The most optimistic finding is the positive orientation of participants (71.0%) that CAM scene in Croatia should be regulated and „CAM therapists should pass a licensing system as healthcare workers of classical medicine do “CONCLUSION: Results strongly support and favor CAM as any diagnosis, treatment or prevention that complements mainstream medicine.

CAM ; attitudes ; beliefs ; nurses ; physiotherapists ; confidence ; efficacy ; Croatia

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