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Background: A large part of the population in Germany makes use of naturopathic, complementary and integrative medical treatments. There are now numerous scientific studies that provide evidence of efficacy for certain indications. At German medical faculties, selected procedures and their application are taught within the cross-sectoral unit called and some elective courses, with a focus on specific aspects are offered. So far, however, there has been no structured curriculum that longitudinally anchors teaching across medical studies and enables all students to consider naturopathic and complementary medical options for patient care later on and to integrate them effectively into the diagnostic and treatment process.Objective: The aim of this position paper is to show the relevance of this topic for medical education, to clarify terminology and to present core competencies and possible implementation options for training.Method: The Integrative Medicine and Perspective Pluralism Committee of the German Association for Medical Education developed this position paper in a multi-stage consensual process, in cooperation with the Forum of University Work Groups on Naturopathic Treatment and Complementary Medicine.Results: First, different umbrella terms were discussed and an existing definition of integrative medicine and health was chosen for subsequent use. Building on this step, the status of education and its scientific foundation in Germany was considered in an international context. In the next step, a competency profile for medical training, consisting of seven areas of competency, was developed and described in detail with regard to naturopathic, complementary and integrative medicine. Implementation options were identified using possible starting points in the curriculum and using established examples of best practice.Conclusion: Despite different priorities at each faculty, it was possible to find an agreement on the development of competencies and anchoring them in medical education on the basis of a common definition of terms. Currently, the implementation in the mandatory and elective areas is very heterogeneous. As part of the current revision of the Medical Licensure Act, there are many possible starting points for the integration of naturopathic and complementary medical teaching content, especially in interprofessional and general practice courses. The implementation and accompanying research of targeted teaching settings should lay the foundations for a long-term and binding integration into medical education. Overall, it is clear that medical education in the field of naturopathy and complementary and integrative medicine has the potential to develop comprehensive core medical competencies.

Hintergrund: In den letzten Jahren ist insbesondere die Natur als Ressource in das Interesse der gesundheitspsychologischen Forschung gerückt. In Ergänzung zum etablierten Konzept der Naturzuwendung als Haltung wurde ein For-schungsinstrument zum Naturerleben entwickelt, welches das subjektive, teilweise intentionale Erleben von Natur unter unterschiedlichen Aspekten beleuchtet. Dazu gehören insbesondere Natur als Erlebensraum, um sich von der Alltagsbelastung distanzieren zu können, um Auszeiten durch Ruhe und Stille finden zu können, um emotionale Ausgeglichenheit zu erlangen, Natur als Ort der Faszination und des Staunens, Naturerleben als Basis für einen verantwortlichen Umgang mit der Natur. Das Manuskript zeigt die Ergebnisse der Validierung des neu entwickelten Fragebogeninstrumentes zum Naturerleben. Methoden: Eine anonyme Online-Querschnittsstudie unter 441 Teilnehmenden wurde mit standardisierten Fragebogeninstrumenten zur Validie-rung der Experience of Nature Scale (ENS) mittels explorativer Faktoren- (Hauptkomponentenanalyse mit Varimax-Rotation) und Reliabilitätsanalysen (Cronbachs α) durchgeführt. Ergebnisse: Die explorative Faktorenanalyse der Naturerlebens-Skala mit 11 Items ergab drei Hauptfaktoren mit guter interner Kongruenz, die 71% der Varianz erklären: (1) Alltagsdistanzierung/Entspannung (Cronbachs α = 0,87), (2) Faszination Natur/Staunen (Cronbachs α = 0,82) und (3) Verantwortungsempfinden für Natur (Cronbachs α = 0,85). Diese Faktoren korrelierten stark mit der Naturverbundenheit (NR-6) und moderat bis stark mit Ehrfurcht/Dankbarkeit (GrAw-7) im Sinne der Konvergenzvalidität, aber nur marginal bis schwach mit psychologischem Wohlbefinden (WHO-5). Schlussfolgerungen: Die ENS zur Erfassung des affektiven Erlebens von Natur hat gute psychometrische Qua-litätsindizes und kann in künftigen Studien zur Bedeutung dieses Erlebens von Natur zum Beispiel als Prädiktor- oder Prozessvariable eingesetzt werden., Background: In recent years, nature as a resource in particular has become of interest in health psychology research. In addition to the established concept of nature-relatedness as an attitude, a research instrument was developed that focuses on the subjective experience of nature in different aspects. This includes nature as an area for experiencing, to distance oneself from the stress of everyday life, to find times for peace and quietness, as a place of fascination and amazement, resulting in greater emotional balance, and experiencing nature as a basis for a responsible approach to nature. Therefore, the newly developed instrument to assess nature experiences should be validated in a cohort of healthy volunteers., Methods: We conducted an anonymous cross-sectional analysis among 441 participants with standardized instruments to validate the Experience of Nature Scale (ENS) using exploratory factor analysis (principal component analysis with Varimax rotation) and reliability analysis (Cronbach’s α)., Results: The exploratory factor analysis of the 11-item ENS revealed three main factors with good internal congruence, explaining 71% of the variance: (1) detachment from everyday life/relaxation (Cronbach’s α = 0.87), (2) fascination with nature/wondering (Cronbach’s α = 0.82), and (3) sense of responsibility for nature (Cronbach’s α = 0.85). In terms of convergent validity, the three factors correlated strongly with nature-relatedness (NR-6) and moderately to strongly with awe/gratitude (GrAw-7), but only marginally to weakly with psychological well-being (WHO-5)., Conclusions: The ENS for assessing the affective experience of nature shows good psychometric quality indices and could be used as a predictor and process variable in future studies addressing the meaning of this experience of nature., (© 2024 S. Karger AG, Basel.)

Background: Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine therapy method that is also frequently used in the western world. It has been the subject of intensive scientific research over the past two decades., Aim of the Work: To describe the efficacy, therapy safety, and health economic relevance of acupuncture for chronic pain disorders and allergic diseases., Material and Methods: In the context of a review (narrative review) the relevant literature was selected, presented, and interpreted., Results: Acupuncture is effective in chronic pain disorders such as chronic knee joint pain in osteoarthritis, migraine, tension headache, chronic lumbar spine pain, chronic cervical spine pain, shoulder pain, dysmenorrhea, and fibromyalgia under routine conditions. In addition, specific efficacy is shown in most chronic pain indications. Acupuncture is also effective in patients with allergic diseases. In large clinical studies, acupuncture has proven to be a relatively safe therapy, but severe complications (e.g. pneumothorax cases, hepatitis B) also occur in rare instances. Acupuncture is usually associated with higher therapy costs, but is considered a cost-effective treatment strategy for pain disorders., Discussion: As a nonpharmacological procedure, acupuncture is becoming increasingly important in pain and allergy therapy and is therefore increasingly included in current guidelines. In further studies, the efficacy of acupuncture should be determined in other indications and the mechanisms of action of this therapy method should be investigated.