Perceptions of Nurses On the Clinical Use of Herbal Medicine at Lekma Hospital

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions of nurses on the clinical use of herbal medicine at LEKMA hospital, in the Accra Metropolis. The study was guided by the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana. The study adopted a qualitative exploratory descriptive design which used the purposive sampling technique to recruit participants. Data was collected using a semi structured interview guide and data was saturated by the 14th participant. All interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Confidentiality and anonymity of the participants were ensured through the use of pseudonyms. Six themes emerged that described the subjective norms, attitudes, perceived control and the behavioral intentions of the nurses towards the clinical use of herbal medicine. The other themes included vending herbal medicine and contrasting herbal and orthodox medication which were additional findings to the constructs of the TPB. The nurses believed herbal medicine was God-given. They were confident that the clinical use of herbal medicine would improve the quality of healthcare patients received. The nurses were confident that when doctors prescribe herbal medicine, it would be easy for them to serve. Also, most of the nurses lacked adequate knowledge on herbal medicine and its administration. Most of them thought vendors of herbal medicine deceive the public and believed herbal medicine had no side effects. It was recommended that nurses should be taken through workshops on herbal medicine administration. Also, the content on herbal medicine in the curriculum for training nurses should be expanded to equip nurses for the administration of herbal medicine.