Integrating complementary medicine into the nursing curriculum.

As nursing moves into the next century, the changing role of the nurse and increasing scope for practice will create the potential to develop an integrated approach to healthcare and the use of complementary medicine alongside more orthodox care. This paper outlines some of the forces which are creating a change in healthcare integration and discusses the value of pre-registration education and training in helping to make future nursing practitioners understand the use and benefit of complementary medicine. In promoting complementary medicine within the pre-registration curriculum, the process of reflection helped nurse teachers to appreciate the potential to integrate it into nurse training.