Abstract

It has been suggested that registering practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is an important step in ensuring the safety of people who choose to use therapies that aren't part of mainstream medicine. A voluntary national registration scheme for practitioners of nutritional therapy, a bioscience-based branch of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), was launched in 2006 by the Nutritional Therapy Council, an independent body funded by the UK Department of Health and established by a group of professional associations representing nutritional therapists. Registrant information for 2006-2009 were reviewed for age, orientation, years by and by, course of enrollment as indicated by capability contrasted with Public Word related Guidelines. For complaints about patient safety, records were audited. The scheme's audit revealed that the majority of applicants had formal training at the NOS level, that most had been practicing for less than ten years, and that the majority of applicants were women with a mean age of 45.

Keywords: Regulation; Practitioner registration; CAM; Patient safety; Nutritional therapy; Audi