Scope of Practice - alternative approaches + RN?

There is absolutely nothing that prevents a nurse from practicing yoga.

Hello all,

I have been researching and researching for quite some time now about this, and have come across different answers.

I am currently a pre-nursing student in California who wants to fuse my love for yoga and ayurveda with nursing, however, I am afraid of whether or not this fusion would even be legally allowed. Would I come across legal issues or any issues at all by incorporating these things as an RN?

I suppose I am ultimately confused about my scope of practice as an RN, wondering if I should/can practice as a nurse who incorporates my alternative care knowledge, or if I should/can practice as a yoga teacher who incorporates my nursing knowledge.

I hope I make sense... Thank you so much in advance.

Ivy

You could combine it as part of holistic care of the patient. As usual discuss your intentions with your management at whatever facility you end up working. But i don't see why incorporating yoga when appropriate in part of the care would be a problem.

What exactly are you looking to do when you reference your "alternative care knowledge"? If you are talking yoga, relaxation, nutrition type stuff those are easy to use o incorporate into practice. If you l are looking at herbal or homeopathic stuff you're going to have sone trouble.

You'll have a hard time if YOU are, say, writing an Ayurvedic care plan for a client or patient. If you helping implement that plan under a practitioner, sure. If you are educating a patient/client about the benefits of an Ayurvedic diet, sure.

Diagnosing and treating is medicine. As long as you're not doing that, it's my understanding that you're cool. I came into nursing with a background in community herbalism, but even with that I understood that I wasn't doing in-depth care planning- I was just educating and providing resources.

Now, if my friend who is a Certified Clinical Herbalist wanted to become a RN, she might have to clear her clinical practice with the BON.

But if you just want to teach yoga, or even do yoga therapy, and integrate your nursing knowledge, I say GO FOR IT. There are a lot of modalities out there (I'm looking at Maya Abdominal Massage and Holistic Pelvic Care in particular, both geared more towards LMTs and PTs) that are open to nurses being trained in them. I think we need MORE of that!