Complementary and alternative medicine instruction in nursing curricula.

With an ever-increasing number of consumers reportedly using non-conventional methods of disease management, nurses have now been recognized as key providers in education on complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM). The risk of herb-drug interactions secondary to consumer use of alternative medicines further increases the need for nurses to assume the role of patient educators in the area of CAM. Many nurses, however, feel rather ill-prepared to properly care for patients using CAM due to inadequate instruction on the subject matter during their training.