Difficulties of health prefessionals facing the use of medicinal plants and fitotherapy

Abstract

Objective: To identify the difficulties encountered by doctors and nurses on the applicability of medicinal plants and phytotherapics in the Family Health Strategy (FHS) of Caico/RN. Methods: A qualitative and descriptive study developed with 19 health professionals. The data collection occurred between January and February 2011 through semi-structured interviews with treatment and analysis mediated by thematic content analysis. Results: The subjects show that the cultural resistance of the population, the lack of knowledge of the health professionals on integrative and complementary practices (PIC), the lack of inputs in the health services and the fragility of popular knowledge hinder the use of medicinal plants and phytotherapy. Conclusion: It is necessary some investments in this area with capacitating actions and training of human resources, besides the physical and structural support. It is suggested the realization of researches along of teaching about PIC and evaluation of the egress' ability to respond to the demands in health services.