Integrative Medicine - is it legal?

[GcMAF]

Are there any regulations or compliance issues with me offering integrative/functional/alternative/naturopathic options to my patients along with the option of contemporary medicine? Is offering those services within my scope of practice as an FNP? If not, if I get a doctoral degree in integrative medicine am I allowed to offer both integrative options along with contemporary options at the same time? If the patient chooses integrative options over or along with contemporary, do I need to have the patient sign a waiver that he/she is refusing/accepting along with contemporary options at this time? Or is the waiver not necessary?

[NICUmiiki, DNP, NP]

I recommend seeking clarification from your BON.

[gettingbsn2msn, MSN, RN]

Will completely be determined by your state. I have found that the western states are more receptive to this type of care. That said, my state still has an issue with NP's. We have a net exodus of NP's who leave our state after training. It makes sense as we can barely do any type of treatment plans. We are nothing more than a glorified RN (in this state, of course not everywhere.)

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

I think this is a good article of value to you if you're considering adding some sort of non-traditional healing options for your patients:

https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/715234/potential-physician-malpractice-liability-associated-complementary-integrative-medical-therapies

[Corey Narry, MSN, RN, NP]

On the other hand, some institutions don't necessarily oppose the intersection between the conventional and the complementary aspects of healing.

https://osher.ucsf.edu/

https://osher.ucsf.edu/education/presentations-and-events/integrative-medicine-grand-rounds

[verene, MSN]

As said above it depends on your state regulations. In my state NPs can incorporate integrative care practices provided they have training and certification / license in those practices.

You may want to check out The American Holistic Nurses Association for more information and links to state specific practice acts.

[cayenne06, MSN, CNM]

On 2/14/2019 at 10:46 AM, GcMAF said:

integrative/functional/alternative/naturopathic options to my patients along with the option of contemporary medicine?

Which treatments are you interested in specifically? I used to practice naturopathic/alternative health care so I am intimately familiar with this topic. I really encourage you to look at this from an ethical framework, legalities aside. Because legal or not, we have an ethical obligation to provide science based care to our patients.

Hopefully we all agree that ALL forms of health care should be held to the same high level of scientific scrutiny. All of us should be equally committed to evolving our practices when we have new information to guide us.

Too often we blame mainstream medicine for the problems with our health care industry. This is just not accurate. Medicine is a science. The health care industry is the system we are forced to work within.

Medicine is a scientific specialty just like astronomy. And science is a method for understanding the world. That's it. Its a cheat sheet to help us figure stuff out. It is fraught with human error and laughably imperfect, but the whole point of any scientific discipline is to slowly self correct. To change over time.

Unfortunately we've been forced to try and practice medicine inside a profoundly flawed health care system, driven by profit. Our ability to provide care is bound up in red tape.

But this is an argument against our profit driven health care system, not against science. And the alt-med industry is just as prone to criticism. Talk about profiteering and pill pushing.

Teal Deer, i know. This is just My Issue. Its important to me. Like I said, i practiced alternative medicine for many years, and I did harm to patients with some of my recommendations. Learn from my mistakes! Dont be like me, bc it suuucks to publicly admit that I was wrong, and that I put my patients in danger. It still smarts a little to do it now, almost a decade hence. But I admit it openly, every chance i get, because maybe someone will take it to heart.