UP FRONT
Advanced Practice Perspectives
In this column, we will hear from an increasingly represented and crucial
component of hematology/oncology care: advanced practice professionals/
advanced practitioners. In this edition, Jean A. Ridgeway, DNP, APN, NP-C,
AOCN, discusses the use of complementary and alternative medicines.
Opening Up the Alternative
Medicine Dialogue
The use of alternative, complementary,
and integrative treatments among cancer
patients is high: In a 2011 study, 65
percent of Americans who had been
diagnosed with cancer reported using
complementary or alternative approaches
– compared with 52.5 percent of people
without a cancer diagnosis.1
What falls under the umbrella of
complementary and alternative medicine
(CAM)? According to the National Center
for Complementary and Integrative
Health, “complementary” medicine is
defined as a non-mainstream health
approach along with conventional
Western medicine, and “alternative”
medicine is using non-mainstr VЦ