The Use of Complementary Medicine Methods by the Nurses Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Objective:This study aimed to determine the use of complementary medicine methods by nurses working on the front line during the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.Method:The study was planned as a descriptive and cross-sectional type and carried out in a training and research hospital in İstanbul with 208 nurses. Nurse Identification Form and Complementary and Integrative Health Assessment for Health Practitioners Scale were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test were used to evaluate the data.Results:The mean age of the nurses was 34.25±6.3 years. 86.5% were women, 76% had a bachelor’s degree, 37% had been working for ten years or more, and 68.8% used complementary medicine methods during the pandemic. In the study, the use of complementary medicine methods was higher in the nurses with a bachelor’s degree, those with an average economic status, those with a family member over the age of 65 who had a chronic disease, those who received training on complementary medicine methods, used complementary medicine methods during the pandemic, and those who recommended complementary medicine methods to their relatives and patients.Conclusion:Complementary integrative health assessment scores of the nurses were above average. The majority used complementary medicine methods and they had an increasing interest in integrating these methods into their professional practices.

Keywords

• covid-19
• nursing
• pandemic
• complementary medicine methods