Clinical nurses' perceptions of the opportunities for using complementary therapies in Iranian clinical settings: A qualitative study

• The clients demand can be used as the opportunity for using complementary therapies in clinical settings by the nurses.
• Some official regulations can direct the nurses towards using complementary therapies in clinical practice.
• Creating a healthy work environment for clinical practice can enhance nurses' interest in and desire for CAM use.

Nurses need to use complementary therapies in their clinical practice in order to fulfill community's needs. There are potential opportunities for using complementary therapies in different clinical settings. This study was done to explore nurses' perceptions of these opportunities in Iranian clinical settings.In this qualitative study, sampling was done purposively and ended after reaching data saturation. Semi-structured interviews were done with fifteen nurses. The data were analyzed via the conventional content analysis approach.The participants' perceptions fell into three main categories of ‘consumer demand’, ‘environmental potentials’, and ‘optimal official regulations’ from which, the main theme of ‘A potentially-supportive environment’ was abstracted.The context of Iranian clinical settings is appropriate for using complementary therapies in nursing practice. A potentially-supportive environment automatically directs nurses towards using such therapies. These findings can be used by nursing managers to integrate complementary therapies into nursing practice.