The Attitudes of Nurse Practitioner Students Toward Complementary and Alternative Integrative Medicine

In light of the popularity of complementary and alternative/integrative medicine (CAM/IM) by Americans, the baseline attitudes of nurse practitioner (NP) students must be understood. As of the report of these research findings, the attitudes of graduate NP students toward CAM/IM have not been reported in the peer reviewed research literature. The purpose of the research was to answer the question “What are the attitudes of nurse practitioner students toward CAM/IM?” Participants (n=57) for the research were recruited from one southern California university. Participants completed a previously used questionnaire, the integrative medicine attitude questionnaire (IMAQ) (Schneider et al., 2003). The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the frequency, mean, and standard deviation were calculated. Overall, the participants demonstrated a positive attitude toward CAM/IM. Stronger research designs that utilize larger samples and that include evaluation of faculty attitudes are recommended for future research. Key words: complementary and alternative, integrative medicine, nurse practitioner attitudes