Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
Cancer patients often use complementary and alternative medicine CAM , however, standardized assessment in clinical routine is missing. We developed a survey questionnaire to assess the practicability of the guideline questionnaire and communication on CAM between health care providers HCPs and patients. We collected guideline questionnaires and survey questionnaires from ten clinics and held twelve semi-structured interviews with HCPs. The most frequently used CAM methods were physical activity Introducing the guideline questionnaire in routine cancer care increased the rate of patients talking to an HCP regarding CAM significantly from The HCPs stated positive effects as an initiation of conversation, increased safety within CAM usage and patients feeling thankful and taken seriously.
However, due to the limited amount of time available for discussions on CAM, generalized distribution to all patients was not feasible. Institutions should focus on implementing standard procedures and resources that help HCPs discuss CAM on a regular basis. Over the past years, the use of complementary and alternative medicine CAM noticeably increased. Cancer patients generally view CAM as a safe, holistic, natural, and nontoxic way to support their recovery Davis et al.
However, evidence about CAM is still insufficient and while undergoing cancer treatment unknown side effects and adverse interactions can occur Conrad et al. Still, many patients do not inform their oncologist or any physician about using CAM Cramer et al. There is a high probability that patient-physician communication about CAM use is associated with an enhanced patient-physician relationship and higher patient satisfaction Davis et al.
The likelihood of already being asked about CAM by cancer patients or their relatives is very high Conrad et al. Many cancer care providers CCPs feel CAM options to be very important for treating disease-related as well as therapy-related symptoms Klein and Guethlin But less than one-third think themselves adequately informed Conrad et al. This lack of knowledge constitutes a barrier to open dialogue about CAM use with patients Klein and Guethlin A way to approach the existing lack of knowledge are systematically developed guidelines.
