chapter 32 : complementary therapies & integrative health Flashcards
A patient describes practicing a complementary and alternative therapy involving breathwork and yoga. The nurse also recommends using energy field therapies. Which techniques did the nurse suggest?
a. Prayer and tai chi
b. The ―zone‖ and acupressure
c. Massage therapy and ayurveda
d. Reiki therapy and therapeutic touch
d. Reiki therapy and therapeutic touch
Both yoga and breathwork are mind-body therapies, whereas both reiki and therapeutic touch therapies are energy field therapies. Tai chi is mind-body intervention. Acupressure and massage are body-based methods. Ayurvedic is a type of whole medical system.
A teen diagnosed with an anxiety disorder is referred for biofeedback training because the parents do not want their child to take anxiolytics. Which statement from the teen indicates successful learning?
a. Biofeedback will help me with my thoughts and physiological responses to stress.
b. Biofeedback will direct my energies in an intentional way when stressed
c. Biofeedback will allow me to manipulate my stressed-out joints.
d. Biofeedback will let me assess and redirect my energy fields.
a. Biofeedback will help me with my thoughts and physiological responses to stress.
By using electromechanical instruments, a person can receive information or feedback on his or her stress level. Having this knowledge allows the patient to develop awareness and voluntary control over his or her physiological symptoms. Biofeedback does not address energy fields; healing touch, reiki, and therapeutic touch are energy fields. Directing energies is therapeutic touch. Manipulation of body alignment and joints is done by a chiropractor.
An older-adult patient is newly admitted to a skilled nursing facility. Medications brought on admission included lisinopril, hydrochlorothiazide, warfarin, low-dose aspirin, Ginkgo biloba, and echinacea. Which potential interaction will cause the nurse to notify the patient’s health care provider?
a. Echinacea and warfarin
b. Lisinopril and echinacea
c. Warfarin and G. biloba
d. Lisinopril and hydrochlorothiazide
c. Warfarin and G. biloba
Warfarin and blood thinners interact with G. biloba (designed to improve memory). All herbal supplements should be evaluated with current pharmacological medications. The other options do not have interactions with each other
A patient asks the nurse for a nonmedical approach for excessive worry and work stress. Which therapy should the nurse recommend?
a. Meditation
b. Acupuncture
c. Ayurvedic herbs
d. Chiropractic care
a. Meditation
Meditation is indicated for stress-related illness and is a nonmedical approach. In addition, meditation increases productivity, improves mood, increases sense of identity, and lowers irritability. Acupuncture, ayurvedic, and chiropractic are all medical approaches. The use of ayurvedic herbs has been available for centuries to treat illness and is a type of whole medical system. Acupuncture focuses on redirecting vital energy (qi) in the body’s meridian energy lines to influence deeper internal organs. Chiropractic therapy involves manipulation of the spinal column and includes physiotherapy and diet therapy.
A nurse is teaching about the therapy that is more effective in treating physical ailments than in preventing stress related disease or managing chronic illness. Which therapy is the nurse describing?
a. Complementary
b. Biomedicine
c. Alternative
d. Mind-body
b. Biomedicine
Despite the success of allopathic or biomedicine (conventional Western medicine), many conditions such as chronic back and neck pain, arthritis, gastrointestinal problems, allergies, headache, and anxiety continue to be difficult to treat. Complementary, alternative, and mind-body types of medicines can be used in tandem with allopathic medicines but are distinctly different.
During a relaxation therapy skills group, the instructor discusses the cognitive skill of learning to tolerate uncertain and unfamiliar experiences. Which skill is the nurse describing?
a. Passivity
b. Focusing
c. Mindfulness
d. Receptivity
d. Receptivity
Receptivity is defined as the ability to tolerate and accept experiences that are uncertain, unfamiliar, or paradoxical. Passivity is the ability to stop unnecessary goal-directed and analytical activity. Focusing is the ability to identify, differentiate, maintain attention on, and return attention to simple stimuli for an extended period. Mindfulness is not a cognitive skill needed in relaxation therapy but is needed for meditation.
A patient asks about the new clinic in town that is staffed by allopathic and complementary practitioners. Which term would best describe this type of clinic?
a. Ayurvedic
b. Homeopathic
c. Integrative medical
d. Naturopathic medical
c. Integrative medical
An integrative medical program allows health care consumers to be treated by a team of providers consisting of both allopathic and complementary practitioners. Several therapies are always considered alternative because they are based on completely different philosophies and life systems from those used by allopathic medicine. Alternative therapies include ayurvedic, homeopathic, and naturopathic.
The group leader is overheard saying to the gathering of patients, ―Focus on your breathing once again …. Notice how it is regular …. Now focus on your left arm …. Notice how relaxed your left arm feels …. Notice the relaxation going down the left arm to the hand.‖ A patient asks the nurse what the group is doing. What is the nurse’s best response?
a. Progressive relaxation training
b. Group biofeedback
c. Guided imagery
d. Meditation
a. Progressive relaxation training
Progressive relaxation training teaches the individual how to effectively rest and reduce tension in the body. The technique used in this scenario involves the use of slow, deep abdominal breathing while tightening and relaxing an ordered succession of muscle groups. Although meditation does include abdominal breathing, along with guided imagery and biofeedback, it does not include tightening and relaxing of muscle groups in an ordered succession.
A therapeutic touch practitioner scans the patient’s body for the purpose of identifying what?
a. Blocked moxibustion
b. Universal life energy
c. Energy field obstructions
d. Structural and functional imbalance
c. Energy field obstructions
The practitioner scans the body of the patient with the palms (roughly 2 to 6 inches [5 to 15 cm] from the body) from head to toe. While assessing the energetic biofield of the patient, the practitioner focuses on the quality of the qi and areas of energy obstructions, redirecting the energy to harmonize and move. Chiropractic therapy involves balancing structural and functional imbalance through spinal manipulation. Moxibustion is a traditional Chinese medicine technique that involves burning moxa, a cone or stick of dried herbs that have healing properties, on or near the skin. Reiki therapy transfers ―universal life energy.
A nurse is teaching a patient about meridians. Which technique is the nurse preparing the patient to receive?
a. Acupuncture
b. Naturopathic
c. Latin American traditional healing
d. Native American traditional healing
a. Acupuncture
Acupuncture regulates or realigns the vital energy (qi), which flows like a river through the body in channels that form a system of 20 pathways called meridians. Naturopathic therapeutics include herbal medicine, nutritional supplementation, physical medicine, homeopathy, lifestyle counseling, and mind-body therapies with an orientation toward assisting the person’s internal capacity for self-healing (vitalism). Tribal traditions are individualistic, but similarities across traditions include the use of sweating and purging, herbal remedies, and ceremonies in which a shaman (a spiritual healer) makes contact with spirits to ask their direction in bringing healing to people to promote wholeness and healing. Curanderismo is a Latin American traditional healing system that includes a humoral model for classifying food, activity, drugs, and illnesses and a series of folk illnesses. The goal is to create a balance between the patient and his or her environment, thereby sustaining health
A Native American patient is asking for a spiritual healer. Which person should the nurse try to contact for the patient?
a. Shaman
b. Vitalist
c. Ayurvedic
d. Curanderismo
a. Shaman
Tribal traditions are individualistic, but similarities across traditions include the use of sweating and purging, herbal remedies, and ceremonies in which a shaman (a spiritual healer) makes contact with spirits to ask their direction in bringing healing to people to promote wholeness and healing. Naturopathic therapeutics include herbal medicine, nutritional supplementation, physical medicine, homeopathy, lifestyle counseling, and mind-body therapies with an orientation toward assisting the person’s internal capacity for self-healing (vitalism). One of the oldest systems of medicine (Ayurvedic) has been practiced in India since the first century AD. Curanderismo is a Latin American traditional healing system that includes a humoral model for classifying food, activity, drugs, and illnesses and a series of folk illnesses.
A nurse is using the holistic approach to care. Which goal is the priority?
a. Integrate spiritual treatments.
b. Join physical care with a vegan diet.
c. Incorporate the mind-body-spirit connection.
d. Use complementary and alternative therapies
c. Incorporate the mind-body-spirit connection.
Beliefs and values that are consistent with an approach to health that incorporates the mind, body, and spirit comprise the holistic approach. Holistic nursing treats the mind-body-spirit of the patient, using interventions such as relaxation therapy, music therapy, touch therapies, and guided imagery. Spiritual treatments are a part of holistic care but not the priority. A vegan diet is an aspect of dietary treatment, but it does not allow for alternative viewpoints or well-rounded care. A holistic nurse may use complementary and alternative therapies to meet the priority goal of incorporating body-mind-spirit.
A nurse is using caring-healing relationships to support whole person/whole systems healing. Which type of nursing is the nurse using?
a. Holistic nursing
b. Integrative nursing
c. Interprofessional nursing
d. Complementary and alternative nursing
b. Integrative nursing
Grounded in six principles, integrative nursing is defined as ―a way of being-knowing-doing that advances the health and well-being of persons, families, and communities through caring-healing relationships.‖ Integrative nurses use evidence to inform traditional and emerging interventions that support whole person/whole systems healing. Holistic nursing treats the mind-body-spirit of the patient, using interventions such as relaxation therapy, music therapy, touch therapies, and guided imagery. Integrative health care, a strategy that is gaining popularity, involves interprofessional group practices where patients receive care simultaneously from more than one type of practitioner; nurses must interact with other health care professionals for any type of nursing. An integrative nurse will use complementary and alternative therapies to provide integrative nursing.
A nurse is teaching a patient relaxation techniques to decreases stress. Which finding will support the nurse’s evaluation that the therapy is effective?
a. Dilated pupils
b. Increased blood sugar
c. Decreased heart rate
d. Elevated blood pressure
c. Decreased heart rate
Decreased heart and respiratory rates, blood pressure, and oxygen consumption and increased alpha brain activity and peripheral skin temperature characterize the relaxation response. The physiological cascade of changes associated with the stress response includes increased heart and respiratory rates, muscle tightening, increased metabolic rate, a sense of foreboding, fear, nervousness, irritability, and a negative mood. Other physiological responses include elevated blood pressure; dilated pupils; stronger cardiac contractions; and increased levels of blood glucose, serum cholesterol, circulating free fatty acids, and triglycerides
A nurse is providing different types of therapies to a patient with excessive fatigue. Which technique will cause the nurse manager to intervene?
a. Meditation
b. Guided imagery
c. Passive relaxation
d. Active progressive relaxation
d. Active progressive relaxation
The nurse manager needs to intervene if the nurse uses active progressive relaxation. Active progressive relaxation is not appropriate for patients with advanced disease or decreased energy reserves. Passive relaxation or guided imagery or meditation is more appropriate for these individuals.
