Western-trained health care practitioners' behavioural intentions to work with traditional healers: implications for integration of traditional healing and Western healing

This study was informed by South Africa s proposal to integrate traditional African healing and Western medicine in state health care institutions. The study aimed to investigate how Western-trained health care practitioners opinions, attitudes, knowledge and experiences with traditional healing could predict their intentions to work with traditional healers in the future. This study utilised the Views on Traditional Healing Questionnaire designed for the purposes of this study. Participants were 319 Western-trained healthcare practitioners at state hospitals and clinics in Gauteng and Limpopo provinces in South Africa. Results of standard multiple regression analysis revealed that the predictor variables (opinions, attitudes, knowledge and experiences) explained 51 of the total variance of health care practitioners intentions to work with traditional healers in the future. Attitudes made the strongest unique contribution to explaining health care practitioners intentions to work with traditional healers in the future when the variance explained by other variables in the model was controlled for. It appears that the current potential to integrate the two health care models is remote and can only be realised with considerable effort from all stakeholders.