YOGA AND ITS USE IN TREATING CHRONIC LOW BACK PAIN ELISA PAULINE CLARK

Purpose: To develop evidence-informed best practice recommendations to reference for nursing professionals and individuals with chronic low back pain when considering different treatment options. Background: Adults in the United States are at risk for developing chronic low back pain and the susceptibility rate is more than doubled for nursing professionals. Integrative yoga therapy is a non-pharmacological intervention that is gaining evidence-informed support. This first line of treatment is superior to other more invasive interventions such as taking opioids. Approach to practice: The best practice recommendations in this thesis are constructed from the literature review conducted through PubMed with the terms “chronic pain” and “integrative therapies” used. The following filters were used, “clinical trial,” “review,” “free full text,” and “5 years.” Four articles were included in the literature review which is seen in chapter two of this thesis. Outcomes: The evidence-informed best practice recommendations are for healthcare professionals to consider as a course of treatment to offer to individuals suffering from chronic low back pain prior to using a pharmaceutical approach. The recommendations are also for nurses to use for themselves to prevent/reduce chronic low back pain. Conclusions: As more research is conducted on integrative yoga therapy, alterations in the recommendations can be made to help reduce/prevent chronic low back pain and improve overall quality of life