Rising public interest in and use of holistic health (HH) practices and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) has created a need for health care providers to become knowledgeable in these areas. HH/CAM content is increasingly included in curricula of professional health education, a trend less clear in associate, certificate, and diploma programs of 2-year colleges. A survey of directors and coordinators of allied health and nursing programs at New Jersey county colleges was conducted to determine curricular presence of HH/CAM and program constituency awareness of institutionally accessible HH/CAM information resources. Results indicated: rising interest in HH/CAM instruction; multiple forces influencing HH/CAM inclusion; HH/CAM strengthening programs; and uncertainty regarding knowledge of and perceived use of library HH/CAM resources. By including HH/CAM, New Jersey's allied health and nursing programs are progressively aligned with consumer use, and trends of professional health schools.
American Holistic Medical Association. (2004 ). The principles of holistic medicine. Retrieved May 4, 2008, from http://www.holisticmedicine.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=1 .
2.
American Holistic Nurses Association. (2004 ). What is holistic nursing. Retrieved May 4, 2008, from http://www.ahna.org/AboutUs/WhatisHolisticNursing/tabid/1165/Default.aspx .
3.
Barnes, P.M., Powell-Griner, E., McFann, K., & Nahin, R.L. (2004). Complementary and alternative medicine use among adults: United States, 2002. (CDC Advance Data Report No. 343). Retrieved November 12, 2006, from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad343.pdf .
4.
Barrett, B. (2003). Alternate, complementary, conventional: Is integration upon us?Journal of Complementary and Alternative Medicine , 9, 417-427. Retrieved November 12, 2006, from Alt HealthWatch database (9978329).
5.
Barzansky, B., & Etzel, S. (2003). Educational programs in US medical schools, 2002-2003 . Journal of the American Medical Association, 290, 1190-1196.
6.
Baugniet, J., Boon, H., & Ostbye, T. (2000). Complementary/alternative medicine: Comparing the view of medical students with students in other health care professions . Family Medicine, 32 (3), 178-184.
7.
Board on Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Institute of Medicine. (2005). Complementary and alternative medicine in the United States. Washington, DC: The National Academic Press. Retrieved October 31, 2006, from http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11182&page=1.
8.
Burke, A., Peper, E., Burrows, K., & Kline, B. (2004). Developing the complementary and alternative medicine infrastructure: Baccalaureate programs in the United States. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 10, 1115-1121. Retrieved September 10, 2006, from Alt HealthWatch database (2005073797).
9.
Eisenberg, D.M., Kessler, R.C., Foster, C., Norlock, F.E., Calkins, D.R., Delbanco, T. (1993). Unconventional medicine in the United States. Prevalence, costs, and patterns of use. The New England Journal of Medicine, 328, 246-252.
10.
Eisenberg, D.M., Kessler, R.C., Van Rompay, M.I., Kaptchuk, T.J., Wilkey, S.A., Appel, S., et al. (2001). Perceptions about complementary therapies relative to conventional therapies among adults who use both: Results from a national survey. Annals of Internal Medicine, 135, 344-351. Retrieved November 12, 2006, from Academic Search Premier database (5245058).
11.
Fenton, M.V. & Morris, D.L. (2003). The integration of holistic nursing practices and complementary and alternative modalities into curricula of schools of nursing. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 9, 62-67. Retrieved October 11, 2006, from CINAHL with Full Text database (2004122344).
12.
Halcon, L., Chlan, L., Kreitzer, M., & Leonard, B. (2003). Complementary therapies and healing practices: Faculty/student beliefs and attitudes and the implications for nursing education . Journal of Professional Nursing, 19, 387-397. Retrieved March 27, 2008, from CINAHL database.
13.
Kleinman, A. (2002). The Global transformation of health care: Cultural and ethical challenges to medicine [Videocast]. Retrieved October 30, 2006, from http://videocast.nih.gov/ram/nccam110702.ram .
14.
Kreitzer, M., Mann, D., & Lumpkin, M. (2008). CAM competencies for the health professions. Complementary Health Practice Review, 13, 63-72.
15.
Kreitzer, M.J., Mitten, D., Harris, I., Shandeling, J. (2002). Attitudes toward CAM among medical, nursing, and pharmacy faculty and students: A comparative analysis. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 8, 44-56. Retrieved September 10, 2006, from Alt HealthWatch database (AN7900954).
16.
Lie, D. & Boker, J. (2006). Comparative survey of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) attitudes, use, and information-seeking behaviour among medical students, residents, and faculty. BMC Medical Education, 6, 1-6. Retrieved October 30, 2007, from http://biomedcentral.com/1472-6290/6/58.
17.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (2007). What is CAM? Retrieved October 25, 2007, from http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/.
18.
National Council of State Boards of Nursing. ( 2005). NCLEX-PN examination: Test plan for licensed practical/vocational nurses. Retrieved November 10, 2007 from https://www.ncsbn.org/2005_NCLEX_PN_Detailed_Test_Plan.pdf.
19.
National Council of State Boards of Nursing. ( 2007). NCLEX-RN examination: Test plan for the national council licensure exam for registered nurses. Retrieved November 10, 2007 from https://www.ncsbn.org/RN_Test_Plan_2007_Web.pdf.
20.
Pearson, N., & Chesney, M. (2007). The CAM Education Program of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine: an overview. Academic Medicine, 82, 921-926.
21.
Tindle, H., Davis, R., Phillips, R., & Eisenberg, D. (2005). Trends in use of complementary and alternative medicine by adults: 1997-2002. Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 11, 42-49. Retrieved October 8, 2006, from Alt HealthWatch database (AN15738892).
22.
Wetzel, M., Eisenberg, D., & Kaptchuk, T. (1998). Courses involving complementary and alternative medicine at US medical schools. Journal of the American Medical Association, 280, 784-787.
