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ALTERNATE HEALTH CARE BELIEFS OF SASKATCHEWAN RESIDENTS OF EUROPEAN DESCENT IN A BIOMEDICAL SETTING

Date

1989-03

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

ORCID

Type

Degree Level

Masters

Abstract

This qualitative descriptive study sought information on alternate health care used by Saskatchewan residents of European descent who entered a Saskatoon hospital for surgery or treatment. While numerous authors consider the use of alternate health care a common practice for the North American majority group of European descent, surprisingly few research studies address this issue. This study set out to determine if alternate health care was as prevalent as the literature suggested, what health care practices were being used, what the perceived beliefs about these practices were, what demographic factors affected the choice of these practices, and why the informants chose to use an alternate practice. Intensive unstructured interviews, participant observation, and observational fieldnotes were used to collect the data, which was converted to quantitative data, when possible, but most frequently rigorously analyzed through coding, contrasting, and constant comparison. Analysis showed 89 `Yo of the 75 informants interviewed used some form of alternate health care adjunctly with their biomedical care. Through the informants' own perception of alterante health care, three distinct categories emerged: (a) physical: practices using physical or tangible forms of health care, (b) psychological: practices using the mind as the director of health care, or (c) spiritual: practices giving a cosmic force the control in health care. While some demographic factors were associated with the informants health care choices, it was most apparent that informants perceived biomedical health care constituting only a small segment of their personal health care practices. Informants placed great emphasis on "advertisement, " a verification by word of mouth or by lay literature, as a reason for using alternate health care; the advertisement was especially valued if it reinforced their core health beliefs and was approved by a significant other. Informants also sought alternate health care because of fear of illness or biomedical treatments, because of anger directed at the biomedical professions, or because of a desire for "control" of their health or illness. The information in this study challenges the idea that alternate health care is only a fad; the majority of informants in this study were chronically ill, and all the informants were diagnosed with a biomedical illness, exibiting signs and symptoms of serious disease. The informants indicated a desperate desire to attain better health through the use of alternate health care.

Description

Keywords

alternate health care

Citation

Degree

Master of Nursing (M.N.)

Department

Nursing

Program

Part Of

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DOI

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