Master of Science in Nursing Theses
Date Degree Awarded
8-2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.)
School
Nursing
Committee Chair
Chu-Yu Huang, Ph.D., RN
Second Committee Member
Rachel Parrill, PhD, RN, APHN-BC
Keywords
physician attitudes, traditional medicine, complementary and alternative medicine, integrative medicine, Kenya
Abstract
The 2007 policy draft of Kenya’s National Coordinating Agency for Population and Development (NCAPD) states that the primary source of health care for more than two-thirds of Kenya’s population is traditional medicine (as cited in NCAPD, 2008). The World Health Organization (WHO) (2013) suggests there should be an integration of TM into systems of national health care to increase health care access. Integrative medicine (IM) involves the integration of therapies from both alternative and mainstream medicine (Integrative medicine, 2014). Little is known about the attitudes of Western, conventionally trained physicians toward IM in a non-Western setting. The purposes of this study were to describe the attitudes of Western, conventionally trained physicians toward IM in Kenya and explore the relationship between physician demographic characteristics and attitudes. The theoretical framework for this descriptive correlational study was the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). A convenience sample of 23 Western, conventionally trained physicians from three rural, Christian mission hospitals in Kenya, East Africa, were used. The participants completed a demographic information sheet and the Integrative Medicine Attitude Questionnaire (IMAQ) (Schneider, Meek, & Bell, 2003) electronically via Qualtrics Survey Software. Overall, physician attitudes were positive, and there were no significant correlations between physician attitudes and demographic characteristics. The primary clinical implication of these findings is an increased awareness of the attitudes of Western, conventionally trained physicians toward IM in Kenya. Understanding physician attitudes toward IM is important for furthering the integration of systems of health care as the WHO (2013) suggests.
DOI
10.15385/tmsn.2015.4
Recommended Citation
Hall, Heather L., "Attitudes of Western, Conventionally Trained Physicians Toward Integrative Medicine in Kenya: A Descriptive Correlational Study" (2015). Master of Science in Nursing Theses. 19.
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/nursing_theses/19
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
