Didn't really get an answer, so I'll try asking here...

[birdy88]

I've already asked this under specialties, but I was still wondering if there were any holistic nurses out there? I mean the type who work specifically with more alternative therapies. I was curious about what nursing school has to offer their line of work, or how a holistic nurse incorporates two seemingly different aspects of healthcare- traditional western type and the more alternative type of care.

If anyone has any insight to practices, benefits, how you get there etc...I would be very interested to hear it!

[kythe, LPN]

Good question, I don't have an answer but I'm curious too. I looked up your first question and I don't think it's clear what you mean. If you are talking about alternative medicine vs. orthodox medicine, maybe you could word it differently?

I'm interested in midwifery, which takes a much more low-intervention stance for normal births. I've noticed that it isn't always a well-respected field, even though you CNM's are at a nurse-practitioner level! I haven't found many people in my nursing school - either among students or instructors - who are very open to anything alternative. I don't know how much this would vary from school to school. I am in a rural area, so it could be only that options are literally limited here.

I have heard of cancer centers and pain management centers that use alternative or "complimentary" medicine alongside traditional medicine, such as massage therapy, hypnotherapy, herbal medicine, and accupuncture. I am an LPN, but have been under the impression that many places like this (should you actually find one in your area) hire RN's. I feel like my options are still too limited by my degree to really look into these things further at this time.

[shock-me-sane]

I don't know much about this, except you are looking for CAM (complementary and alternative medicine). I googled and got a site for you.

http://www.son.washington.edu/cam/

It looks like there are other schools that have this sort of thing as well. Post undergrad.

[birdy88]

Kythe,

you're probably right, I wasn't very specific, but now I guess I'm realizing alternative medicine is kinda a broad topic, of which I need to learn more about. I guess I was confused because I thought that you could go to nursing school and then later specialize in a more alternative field, and I wondered what you would get out of learning all of the western medicine priciples, prescription drugs and so forth if you wouldn't be putting that into your practice...but I'm learning that maybe alternative therpaies like nutritional therapy, accupuncture, or maybe even energy therapies (?) go alongside western medicine. I'm really not sure at this point, so I hope I'm making sense. I'm still going to look into it, but I think it would be useful to hear from someone who actually does it for a living, until then I'm just going to try to sort it all out!

[SMS80]

i'm still a nursing student but have done some research on therapeutic touch, a type of energy exchange. it is interesting to see it's effects and it is being used more often.

as far as what nursing school has too offer... consider it as a stepping stone. once you have that "RN" behind your name the possibilities are just about endless. you can go for further education or training specifically in the field that you enjoy. you could go into private practice with other health professionals that deal with alternative and complementary medicine.

as cheesy as it is, check out discovernursing.com (nursing careers)

it can give you insight as to the many, many different fields of nursing and it has good links.

[birdy88]

thanks SMS80!

that helped clarify what I was kinda already thinking, that an RN lisence may be more of a stepping stone if thats the direction I want to take.