Nursing’s Scope of Practice and Homeopathy in the United States

In late 2020, I was asked by Dr. Sue Roe, President of Homeopathic Nurses Association, to start and complete a project that would look at each state board of nursing’s scope of practice and whether RNs or APRNs were allowed to practice integrative or complementary medicine, specifically homeopathy.

Emails were sent to each state board of nursing. If there wasn’t any response to the first email a second email was sent. Some boards responded but many did not. To help speed up this part of the project, in September 2021 a student from Arizona State University, Julia Robles, helped complete sending emails. If there was no communication from the state boards, we tried to find the answers on their websites. Finally, when it looked like we had completed the project near the end of summer 2022, the following data showed:

• 3 states board of nursing recognize homeopathy.
• 10 states board of nursing recognize complementary or alternative medicine without any mention of homeopathy.
• 37 states board of nursing do not recognize complementary or alternative medicine or homeopathy.
• At the time of this research, the total of number of states that have a Scope of Practice Decision Tree is 21.

The Decision Tree

When a search of each state’s Scope of Practice or nurse rules was done and there were few or no advisory opinions, frequently I found a scope of practice decision tree.

Four major nursing organizations collaborated and developed a scope of practice decision-tree: 1) the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), 2) the American Nurses Association (ANA), 3) the American Organization of Nurse Executives (AONE), and 4) the National League for Nursing (NLN), in collaboration with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN). It was reviewed and approved by the Tri-Council in February 2016 and by the NCSBN Board of Directors in July 2016.

This tool is used to assist nurses and their employers in determining which responsibilities a nurse can safely perform. Recognizing that nursing practice is continually evolving, the decision-tree provides a standardized, decision-making framework for all licensed nurses in all settings with respect to their education, role, function, and accountability within the scope of nursing practice.⁽¹⁾

Note: after reviewing the decision-tree in respect to homeopathy, I don’t see how homeopathy could be practiced except for outside the role of nursing. ⁽¹⁾

1. (1) Scope of Nursing Practice Decision-Making Framework, Journal of Nursing regulation, Volume 7/Issue 3 October 2016

Moving Forward

The early history of nursing in the United States uncovered nurses worked in homeopathic hospitals. The nurse training schools of these hospitals had courses given by both allopathic and homeopathic medical doctors. At that time, the posture that homeopathy could only be prescribed by medical doctors may have affected the decision by the early board of nursing that homeopathic prescribing is not within the scope of nursing. Also, as homeopathy became the ‘black sheep’ of medicine, nursing turned to conventional medicine accepting the hierarchical role of doctor to nurse. Over time, as homeopathic nurses died off so did the history of nursing in homeopathy.

Today, almost all board of nursing that accept the role of complementary medicine in nursing accept those therapies that don’t “prescribe”. For example, in North Carolina, their Complementary Therapies position statement includes massage therapy, therapeutic touch, biofeedback, magnet therapy, reflexology, imagery, hypnosis, aromatherapy and acupressure. Although these therapies take an understanding of ‘diagnosing’ a physical or emotional problem, there is nothing prescribed to the patient.

This project demonstrates that homeopathy must be retaught to all levels of nursing, administrative as well as practicing LPNs, RNs and APRNs. This could be done by direct outreach with educational videos and/or CEUs. HNA is well-fitted to such an enormous but worthy task. Lastly, each nurse can open a dialogue with their state board of nursing to make homeopathy a complementary and alternative medicine in your state.

Updating the Map

As the nursing profession and homeopathy move forward together, the map will need to be updated if there is new legislation or position statements that include homeopathy within the nurse’s scope of practice. Should you be aware of new legislation that needs to be added to the map, please contact us at info@nursehomeopaths.org.

Frank Russo, RN, MSN, FNP-BC, CCH
Vice President of Homeopathic Nurse’s Association