Combining Alternate Theories in Nursing Education
Nurses have a good perspective on the health of their community. They are in direct contact with those in need. Nurses, whether caring for patients directly or teaching students about patient care, have the whole patient in mind. That takes in all kind of care and often conventional therapy and alternative therapy are not necessarily opposites but are complementary. No two therapies work the same way on patients, so at best any kind of therapy is somewhat of a gamble. It might work and then again it might not.
Types of conventional therapies could be seen as the usual mode of treatment for the most patients at any given time. These could be chemotherapy after surgery for breast cancer, marrow transplants for leukemia, or an alternative method would be whatever is being offered in lieu of these. It could be herbal treatment, some unproven but miraculous cure advertised on television in another country, or it could be simply a wait and see approach.
Nurses work with the attending physician in selecting the treatment of choice unless they’re working in situations where they are responsible for doing whatever is possible to affect a cure. Methods of conventional therapy as opposed to alternative therapy could be seen as lowering the usual dosage of a prescription and finding an alternative - lower or higher - dosage would be as effective. The prescribing doctor would follow along with the manufacturer's recommended dosage but would alter it if he should discover more or less is needed. The nurse’s role in determining this is invaluable.
An example of the above would be instead of opting for the usual adult dose of 25 or 59 mg. capsule of Diphenhydramine - generic Benadryl - a caring nurse or doctor would suggest using a liquid dosage of 12 mg. instead. Generic over brand names in are not actually a form of alternative therapy but is used here as an alternative to what is usually considered the right dosage. In years past, the idea of using the least amount of a medicine that would bring about the same desired cure or relief from pain was thought to be good medicine. Thought about in that light, any method of treatment that changes the status quo is alternative medicine.
Concept of therapy deals with what kind of therapy will more quickly and more easily bring about a desired effect. As an example, a wound is often hard to heal.Alternative therapiesare often substituted for the usual treatment when the former is found to be ineffective. An old fashioned poultice instead of heat compress, maggots for debriding the wound, might be exactly what the doctor order for these hard to treat wounds.
Alternative may also refer to the type of heat used. If heat is decided upon, what kind of heat? Will it be infrared, ultra violet or wet heat applied with compresses. All these considerations must be thought through when dealing with cures. It is all problematic and is inexact and believe it or not, much of it is simply guess work or at best trial and error.
Some therapies are not guess work however but are tried and proven and are conventional treatments. The concept behind rotating tourniquets to relieve congestive heart failure is a sound concept. Allowing a limb - arm or leg to not need circulating blood for a brief period of time, allows the heart to rest. Technology does not render that old-fashioned method alternative, it only makes the process easier and more accurately performed.
Yet, alternative brings to mind not different methods of treatment when the process is basically the same but only accelerated and made more convenient—and expensive— by improving the method; alternative therapies concerns itself more with different approaches to the treatment. These most often are thought of as herbal treatment, or acupuncture or massage therapy. Yet basically, when these are effective, they act directly on what is already considered to be conventional therapy as related to what's known to cure what.
Examples: Many medicines today have their basis in plants and tree bark and soil organisms and therefore herbal therapy is nothing new, although the public may need to be aware of it being exploited; Acupuncture and ancient Chinese and Indian conceptual medicine has now found acceptance in the West. It has to do with energy and sluggish blocked nerve pathways and accurately stimulating these areas to open up and accept more electrical impulses in healing. The concept is something like this. Instead of nerve transformers not doing their job, a needle prick will awaken them up and tell them to get busy. Messages must get through.
Conventional and alternative therapies go hand in hand. What once worked may work again. Yet, caution is in order some things done in the today is completely off the charts. Bloodletting is only for examination and in itself will do nothing but deprive an already sick person of needed nutrients and fresh oxygen.
