Israeli nurses' attitudes to the holistic approach to health and their use of complementary and alternative therapies.

Purpose: To examine nurses' attitudes to holistic and biomedical approaches to health care and the correlation between the two and to explore the extent of recommending and using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) by nurses and its correlation with attitudes toward the holistic approach to care.

Design And Methods: In this cross-sectional correlational study, a structured questionnaire was completed anonymously by 213 Israeli hospital-based nurses from various departments.

Findings: Nurses perceived both approaches as critical to optimal health care: a positive correlation emerged of attitudes to the two approaches.