Alternative health care "sneaking in through the back door"

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate complementary and alternative health services (CAHS) in relation to official health services (OHS) in Iceland. For this purpose, interviews and participant observation to explore nurses’ experience of working with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) were used. Despite the lack of an official policy on the use of CAM within health institutions, some health professionals in Iceland have found a place for them in their practice. The respondents demonstrate a great interest in CAM and use it in various ways. If their workplace is positive toward CAM therapies, some of them try to practice it there. If CAM therapies are not positively received, the nurses feel they must hide their interest in the therapies or practice them outside of the official health care system. All the nurses in the study mentioned a lack of policy and research on CAM and want to see more cooperation between OHS and CAHS. The state of affairs in these matters is that neither plural nor integrated medicine reigns. Iceland is therefore in an intermediary state. Co-operation is ongoing in some ways, but not in others.