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ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS ABOUT INTEGRATION OF CAM EDUCATION IN HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS TRAINING PROGRAMS IN CROATIA
Abstract
Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) refers to a group of therapeutic and diagnostic disciplines that largely exist outside the institutions where conventional health care is taught and provided. In most parts of the world CAM content is included into health care professionals training programs. In Croatia there are still ideological and professional disputes between the majority of allopathic establishment and CAM practitioners. AIM: Aim of the study was to identify the openness and willingness of healthcare workers for organized undergraduate and/or lifelong education in the field of CAM for the purpose of better and easier integration of CAM into the education and health system of the Republic of Croatia. SAMPLE AND METHODS: The study was conducted on a sample of 569 participants (173 nurses, 312 physiotherapists and 84 sanitary engineers enrolled into study programs during the academic year 2017/2018. RESULTS: Only 22.8% participants confirmed that during their previous education in the field of health care through verified curricula they met topics from CAM. The majority of them 61.7%, would like to acquire sufficient knowledge through formal education programs so that the interested patient could be properly talked about the possibilities of application and effectiveness of CAM. On the same line are 56.9% of participants who have expressed positive attitudes about incorporating CAM into the curricula. As nursing and physiotherapy are regulated professions in the EU member states it is logical that 71% of the participants support the idea that CAM therapists should pass a licensing system as healthcare workers of classical medicine do. CONCLUSION: This survey gives a contribution to understanding the attitudes and beliefs about CAM among health care professionals in Croatia. The obtained attitudes about CAM have shown that health care professionals perceived that they had very little knowledge of complementary and alternative medicine but are completely open-minded about the integration of CAM education into the training programs for health care professionals in Croatia.
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References15
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