Cargando…

An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients

BACKGROUND: Traditional and complementary medicines (T&CM) are any form of medicine, practice, treatment, product, technology, knowledge system or ceremony outside of conventional medical practice that aims to prevent and/or treat illness and/or promote well-being. Alongside conventional cancer...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Gall, A., Anderson, K., Adams, J., Matthews, V., Garvey, G.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6751784/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31533782
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12906-019-2665-7
_version_ 1783452683030495232
author Gall, A.
Anderson, K.
Adams, J.
Matthews, V.
Garvey, G.
author_facet Gall, A.
Anderson, K.
Adams, J.
Matthews, V.
Garvey, G.
author_sort Gall, A.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Traditional and complementary medicines (T&CM) are any form of medicine, practice, treatment, product, technology, knowledge system or ceremony outside of conventional medical practice that aims to prevent and/or treat illness and/or promote well-being. Alongside conventional cancer treatments, T&CM usage is increasing; with 19% of indigenous Australians with cancer reporting using T&CM. There is limited evidence surrounding T&CM use and disclosure by indigenous patients. Our aim was to explore healthcare providers’ views about usage, disclosure/non-disclosure of T&CM by Indigenous cancer patients. METHODS: Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 18 healthcare providers, including three indigenous providers, at a large urban hospital providing care to Indigenous cancer patients were conducted to explore providers’ experiences and attitudes towards T&CM use by Indigenous cancer patients. An interpretive phenomenological approach was used to thematically analyse the data. RESULTS: Analysis revealed six themes: concern about risk; no ‘real’ benefits; perception of T&CM and conventional medicine as antithetical; barriers to disclosure; ‘patients’ choice’ a double-edged sword; and providers’ lack of knowledge about T&CM. Healthcare providers perceived discord between T&CM and conventional medicine. Most lacked knowledge of T&CM, and had concerns around negative-interactions with conventional treatments. They considered T&CM outside their role, citing this as reasoning for their lack of knowledge. Indigenous healthcare providers had greater understanding and openness towards T&CM. CONCLUSIONS: Given the potential usage of T&CM by Indigenous cancer patients, providers need a more comprehensive understanding of T&CM in order to inform discussion and facilitate effective disclosure on this topic. If indigenous Australians with cancer feel that cancer care providers are unreceptive to discussing T&CM, patient care risks being compromised; particularly given the potential for negative interactions between T&CM and conventional cancer treatments. Fostering health care interactions where indigenous patients feel comfortable to discuss T&CM usage should be a priority for all cancer care services.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6751784
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2019
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-67517842019-09-23 An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients Gall, A. Anderson, K. Adams, J. Matthews, V. Garvey, G. BMC Complement Altern Med Research Article BACKGROUND: Traditional and complementary medicines (T&CM) are any form of medicine, practice, treatment, product, technology, knowledge system or ceremony outside of conventional medical practice that aims to prevent and/or treat illness and/or promote well-being. Alongside conventional cancer treatments, T&CM usage is increasing; with 19% of indigenous Australians with cancer reporting using T&CM. There is limited evidence surrounding T&CM use and disclosure by indigenous patients. Our aim was to explore healthcare providers’ views about usage, disclosure/non-disclosure of T&CM by Indigenous cancer patients. METHODS: Semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 18 healthcare providers, including three indigenous providers, at a large urban hospital providing care to Indigenous cancer patients were conducted to explore providers’ experiences and attitudes towards T&CM use by Indigenous cancer patients. An interpretive phenomenological approach was used to thematically analyse the data. RESULTS: Analysis revealed six themes: concern about risk; no ‘real’ benefits; perception of T&CM and conventional medicine as antithetical; barriers to disclosure; ‘patients’ choice’ a double-edged sword; and providers’ lack of knowledge about T&CM. Healthcare providers perceived discord between T&CM and conventional medicine. Most lacked knowledge of T&CM, and had concerns around negative-interactions with conventional treatments. They considered T&CM outside their role, citing this as reasoning for their lack of knowledge. Indigenous healthcare providers had greater understanding and openness towards T&CM. CONCLUSIONS: Given the potential usage of T&CM by Indigenous cancer patients, providers need a more comprehensive understanding of T&CM in order to inform discussion and facilitate effective disclosure on this topic. If indigenous Australians with cancer feel that cancer care providers are unreceptive to discussing T&CM, patient care risks being compromised; particularly given the potential for negative interactions between T&CM and conventional cancer treatments. Fostering health care interactions where indigenous patients feel comfortable to discuss T&CM usage should be a priority for all cancer care services. BioMed Central 2019-09-18 /pmc/articles/PMC6751784/ /pubmed/31533782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12906-019-2665-7 Text en © The Author(s). 2019 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Gall, A.
Anderson, K.
Adams, J.
Matthews, V.
Garvey, G.
An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients
title An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients
title_full An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients
title_fullStr An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients
title_full_unstemmed An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients
title_short An exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of Traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by Indigenous cancer patients
title_sort exploration of healthcare providers’ experiences and perspectives of traditional and complementary medicine usage and disclosure by indigenous cancer patients
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6751784/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31533782
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12906-019-2665-7
work_keys_str_mv AT galla anexplorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT andersonk anexplorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT adamsj anexplorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT matthewsv anexplorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT garveyg anexplorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT galla explorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT andersonk explorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT adamsj explorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT matthewsv explorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients
AT garveyg explorationofhealthcareprovidersexperiencesandperspectivesoftraditionalandcomplementarymedicineusageanddisclosurebyindigenouscancerpatients