Lung cancer patients' beliefs about complementary and alternative medicine in the promotion of their wellness

Purpose: Cancer patients are increasingly turning to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) because they believe that conventional treatments are not optimizing their overall wellness. However, the relationship between CAM use, wellness, and patient beliefs has received little attention in the nursing literature. This study aimed to understand lung cancer patients' beliefs about CAM use in promoting their own wellness.

Method: An interpretive qualitative design guided the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 adult lung cancer outpatients who used CAM. An inductive approach to analysis was taken; this included immersion in the data, open coding, categorization of similar codes, and identification of emerging patterns and themes.

Results: The patients' beliefs about CAM use in promoting their own wellness were the result of an ongoing adaptive process of belief modification and reformation/transformation that began with their cancer diagnosis. This evolution of patient beliefs comprised four main themes: processing the initial upheaval of beliefs into a life change; developing beliefs that motivated CAM use; validating their new beliefs; and synthesizing these experiences and belief changes into a personal philosophy/meaning of "wellness with cancer."

Conclusions: CAM, as a strategy to promote wellness, played an integral role in the experience of wellness with cancer. Patients' experiences with CAM were governed by their underlying beliefs; thus, clinicians should consider their patient's beliefs when discussing CAM strategies. Given the importance of recommendations health professionals should also offer guidance and open discussion of CAM with patients and tailor CAM to their needs.