Personal and professional influences on practitioners' attitudes to traditional and complementary approaches to health in the UK

ObjectiveTo explore primary care practitioners' personal and professional beliefs about traditional and complementary approaches (TCA) to health and the influence of professional socialization in the UK.MethodsAs part of a larger study on child TCA use in a multi ethnic community, semi-structured, one on one, face-to-face interviews with 30 primary care practitioners (GPs, nurses and health visitors) explored experience, knowledge and attitudes regarding TCA. Framework analysis was used. This paper explores the key emergent issues of personal and professional beliefs and professional socialization resulting from the qualitative data obtained during the interviews.ResultsPersonal factors (ethnicity and personal use) influence attitudes, but professional factors appear to dominate, including biomedical theory, evidence based medicine, safety and treatment choice. Curbing of personal views and experience may be due to caution and conformity from increasing regulatory power. Inter- and intra-professional group differences also emerged, likely due to variation in training, status and professional role.ConclusionsPractitioners need to understand patients' diverse health beliefs and practices and discuss TCA with families, despite regulatory and organizational constraints, to fulfil their professional duty to patients, particularly regarding safety. Further research is needed to verify the professional socialization process and the influence of specific regulation on training.