Knowledge and clinical dialogues about complementary health approaches among nurse practitioners specialized in geriatrics.

Background: In the United States, people over the age of 65 years will account for 20% of the population by 2030, and these elders are more likely to have chronic comorbid complex health problems. Sixty-three percent use complementary health approaches (CHAs) but less than half disclose their use to their health care providers. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are the fastest growing population of primary care health providers.

Nurse practitioner knowledge, use, and referral of complementary/alternative therapies.

Purpose: The study aims are to (a) describe nurse practitioners' (NPs') belief in effectiveness, knowledge, referral, and use of complementary/alternative therapies (C/ATs), (b) explore the initiation of C/AT dialogue between NPs and their patients, and (c) examine the relationships between demographic variables and NP C/AT knowledge, beliefs, use, referrals.

Data Sources: A mixed-method cross-sectional online survey of licensed NPs (N = 2874) from a Midwestern state was analyzed using descriptive statistics, thematic analysis, and content analysis.

Conclusions: NPs (n = 410) report the most knowledge about prayer (40%) and mind-body practices (32%).