Understanding Complementary and Alternative Therapy Policy

GETTING STARTED:
As a nurse, you should be well aware that all states have laws that say unless someone has a medical degree, providing healthcare treatments in a professional setting is illegal. A person practices medicine whenever he or she attempts to diagnose a patient, treat a medical condition, prescribe medications or treatments, or perform surgery. If you actually perform medical treatments, it is not necessary for you to receive any kind of compensation to be convicted of the crime, nor do your actions have to result in harm to the patient to be charged with “practicing medicine without a license.” But, were you aware that in 2013, Colorado became the 9th state in the United States to pass a law that protects “alternative” practitioners (Safe Harbor Protection Laws, n.d.)? Also, did you know Minnesota passed a Safe Harbor Exemption Bill in 2000 that protects some actions by CAT therapists from legal action (Safe Harbor Protection Laws, n.d.)? For this assignment, you will search the Internet for “Safe Harbor Bills” to learn more about the policies or legislative actions related CAT.  This research will prepare you for a discussion regarding how these policies/legislative actions promise to impact your ability to provide holistic nursing care.  You will also research strategies to advocate for client safety and guard against the risk of overlapping therapies as policies continue to emerge regarding the various CAT practices. This activity serves as a context to relate evidence-based findings regarding CAT and policies or legislative actions.
*Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:
Identify recent policy and legislative guidelines for CAT.
Review nursing strategies advocating for client safety in the context of CAT.
Identify the trends and future of CAT in the healthcare setting of the United States.
*Resources
Internet resources
*Background Information
As the healthcare field become increasingly complex, consumers of healthcare need nurses, as the most trusted profession for the past decade, to serve as educators and advocates more than ever.  The purpose of this discussion forum is to provide you with the opportunity to learn about, evaluate policies, or legislative actions regarding CAT practices and apply your findings to the provision of safe and effective holistic nursing care for clients.
*Instructions
1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. Conduct a web search for a press release, online article, or other reliable publication regarding current policy or legislative action regarding a CAT. Select a source that is current within the past five years.  This could include an action taken by the FDA, if any.
3. Provide a link to the selected publication regarding CAT policy, including a reference and citations of the source. Prepare to discuss the following prompts:
a. Summarize the policy and/or legislative guidelines that apply to this CAT.
b. Describe how the policy will impact professional nursing care.
c. Discuss nursing strategies to advocate for client safety and guard against the risk of overlapping therapies as policies continue to emerge regarding various CAT.
d. Describe any upcoming trends identified; do you foresee policies that are more accommodating to complementary modalities or more restricting? 
e. Research Safe Harbor Practitioner Exemption Laws.
f. What is your personal position on the laws?
4. Whether written or spoken, interactions are expected to:
a. clearly and thoroughly address the prompt with meaningful information that shows critical thinking.
b. introduce your own ideas and questions to add greater depth to the discussion, rather than restating what your classmates have shared. (Include much more than “Great post,” or “I agree.”)
c. refer to relevant course concepts as you discuss your learning together.
d. develop insightful conversation by directly addressing your classmates' ideas.
e. demonstrate professionalism.
5. Based on your educational setting, complete tasks in the instructions below.