Knowledge and attitude of nursing students towards yoga and other complementary and alternative therapies

The main concept of the complementary and alternative therapy refers to therapies used together with conventional medicine as well as therapies used in place of conventional medicine. In the modern era the word holism is more often coined with the nursing practice. There has been a substantial increase in the use of yoga and other complementary and alternative medicine even among the modern health care professionals everywhere in the world. The main aim of the study was to identify the knowledge and attitude of nursing students towards yoga and other complementary and alternative therapies. The data were collected from 300 undergraduate nursing students by using NSAS-Y (Nursing Students Attitude Scale-CAT) and a knowledge questionnaire. Results show that majority of the nursing students having adequate knowledge and a positive attitude towards the yoga and other complementary and alternative therapies. The study concluded that there should be a provision for remodeling in the traditional nursing educational system to integrate the yoga and other complementary and alternative therapies in the nursing curriculum in order to improving the knowledge and attitude of the young buds in nursing as well as faculty.