RESUMEN
Objective To evaluate the clinical application of TCM nursing therapies and identify the problems during the therapy implementation, in order to explore the countermeasures to promote its clinical improvement. Methods A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted,and a self-designed questionnaire was employed to investigate 218 nurses from 148 grade A class three TCM hospitals in China. Results 25 TCM nursing therapies were implemented in these hospitals. Ear acupressure therapy was the most frequently implemented,accounting for 83.5%(182/218);while wax therapy was the least implemented, accounting for 7.8%(17/218). The implementation frequency of these technologies varied significantly, 0~860 times a week. The top three of them were acupoint application therapy, hot compression of Chinese medicine and ear acupoints therapy.TCM nursing therapies were considered to be the most frequently used in insomnia, headache, edema, arthralgia, cold, epigastric pain, hypochondriac pain and fever.Storage of TCM nurses,lacking of TCM knowledge and inapposite therapy implementation were the main problems in the application. Conclusions Scientific and rational allocation of human resources, cultivation of the TCM-specific nursing professional, enhancement of nurses'awareness of Chinese medicine, establishment of a reasonable charging standard, and strengthening the risk management in implementation will promote its clinical development.