Knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of registered Master’s Degree homoeopathy students of the role of nutrition in Homoeopathic management

Abstract

Background: Nutrition is a vital component of health promotion and disease prevention. Homoeopathic practitioners are in a good position to offer nutritional advice to patients. However, M. Tech: Hom students at DUT find their nutrition education to be inadequate. Therefore, this research is aimed at understanding knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of students registered at the master‘s level of their M. Tech: Hom degrees, regarding the role of nutrition in homoeopathic management of patients. Method: Following a qualitative exploratory descriptive design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 M. Tech: Hom students to determine their levels of knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of nutrition education at the Homoeopathic Day Clinic (HDC) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), in a quiet, private and comfortable consultation room. The interview data was transcribed into Microsoft word document. Transcripts were analysed using Tesch‘s thematic eight-step procedure of data analysis. Subsequently, categories, codes and themes were formed. Results: From 13 semi-structured interviews with M. Tech: Hom students, three themes emerged. Those three themes were knowledge of nutrition, perception of nutrition and attitude towards nutrition. All participants considered nutrition applicable to homoeopathic management. However, the majority of participants were dissatisfied with the amount of time allocated for nutrition education in the homoeopathic curriculum. Furthermore, they felt unprepared to provide nutrition care to patients. Conclusion: Participants in this study recognised the importance of nutrition training in homoeopathic management. However, they felt dissatisfied with the quality and quantity of the nutrition training offered in the current homoeopathy syllabus and inadequately equipped to offer nutrition care.