Health conception of professionals using integrative and complementary practices in healthcare

Abstract

The Integrative and Complementary Health Practices broaden care, depending on the conception of health. The research aimed at analyzing the representations and meanings given to health by professionals using Integrative and Complementary Health Practices, and the reasons to include them in their practice. Research data was collected online and the method of free association was used to analyze the dimensions of health, which substantiated the analyses of the representations on health, and the motive categories. Hermeneutics served as the theoretical background for data interpretation. Nineteen professionals, mostly nurses, who use Integrative and Complementary Health Practices, participated in the study. Social representations of health were described in 49 words, and the most significant are “well-being” and “comprehensiveness”. Two set of meanings emerged while interpreting the reasons that led professionals to use Integrative and Complementary Health Practices: health promotion and confronting disease. The first expresses Comprehensive Health; Individual Self-care; Balance, and do not treat symptoms. The second includes Reduction of Allopathic Medication; Inefficacy of the Current Model; Treating Biomedical Pathology in different ways. Two paradigms were identified: biomedicine and vitalism, both intertwined in speech, revealing syncretism of meanings in the practices of professionals.

Keywords:
Complementary Therapies; Holistic Health; Health personnel