Help with Lit Review-Complementary Therapies

[dandrc]

Hi, I have to write a 15-20 page lit review on complementary therapies or alternative medicine. I am not sure where to go with it. I am having trouble thinking of a question so that I can get started. The only thing that comes to mind is St. John's Wort when I think about alternative medicine. I know there are several things out there such as acupuncture, aromatherapy, and meditation but I have never came across these sorts of things while doing clinicals, so I don't think they are very common in my area. I know there are people who take St. John's Wort for depression and I read in a few articles that there were some studies done that said it might contribute to dementia in Alzheimers disease and that it might cause infertility in those especially that are already having fertility problems, but I dont see where I can write 15 pages about it. I thought about uninsured persons and alternative medicine, but I still don't know where to go with that either. Everything just seems too broad. I am really bad at writing papers, well atleast getting started on them, so if anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

[ParkerBC,MSN,RN, PhD, RN]

There is a lot of research on music therapy, art therapy, guided imagery, ect… Are you in graduate school? I hope so for a 15-20 page literature review. You will need to have access to research and journal articles on the subject matter; CINAHL, for example. You should have access via your school’s library website. There are tons of articles related to complimentary therapies. You may not have seen it in clinical, but there are several facilities turning to these therapies as they have proven results for a fraction of the cost.

[dandrc]

No I am not in graduate school. I am in Med Surg 2 and 3 for the ASN. They said the reason we are having to do this is because alot of students will go back to get their BSN and you have to write alot of papers in the BSN and Masters program. I have looked through the databases such as the example you gave but I just didn't know where to go with it. My instructor gave me a topic "complementary therapies" and I have to come up with a question and atleast 10 articles that were published in the last 5 years. I looked around and there are alot on the subject but to narrow it down...I wasn't havin much luck.