Complementary and Alternative Medicine offered by nurses in Primary Health Care

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to assess and analyze the provision of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in primary health care by nurses in the city of São Paulo, and the impact of the Covid-19 pan- demic on this provision. This was a descriptive time series study conducted with secondary data from the official database of the Informatics Department of the Unified Health System for the period from 2018 to 2020. The results showed that complementary therapies provided by nurses totaled 10,933 procedures in 2018, 24,684 in 2019, and 12,651 in 2020. Between 2018 and 2019, there was a 120% increase in provision, a trend that was interrupted in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The provision of these therapies by nurses is a form of holistic care and expanded understanding of the health and disease process. However, despite the great potential for the application of this approach to health care, this category accounts for a small percentage of total services in the community studied.

KEYWORDS
Nursing care; Primary Health Care; Complementary therapies; Integrality in health; Public health