Using nontraditional therapies to replace traditional medical treatment is becoming more popular in the United States. Nurses in the twenty‐first century are faced with the challenge of broadening their view of health care and discovering the benefits of nontraditional, often ancient, health care principles and practices. Health care professionals and patients need to understand, however, that although a nontraditional therapy may be natural or noninvasive, it is not necessarily safe and without consequences. This article discusses the increased use of nontraditional therapies among older adults with a focus on the use and perioperative implications of botanical, herbal, and nutritional supplements. AORN J 77 (May 2003) 913–922.

This retrospective study was concerned with identifying the strongest predictors of success for African American and foreign-born baccalaureate graduates on the NCLEX-RN from the following nine variables- the admission grade point average, medical-surgical nursing grade point average, nursing grade point average, cumulative grade point average, percentile rank on the Mosby Assess Test, age at the time of the licensing examination, number of semesters needed to complete the nursing curriculum, licensed vocational nurse status, and the number of Ds and Fs received in nursing courses- and comparing these with predictors of success for white baccalaureate graduates. Three random samples of 50 African American, foreign-born, and white graduates from four baccalaureate schools from May 1987 through May 1992 were selected from a total population of 1,205. Chi-square, Fisher's exact test, twoway analysis of variance, and discriminant analysis were used to analyze the data. Students in all three ethnic groups with a Mosby Assess Test percentile rank below 21 and a D or F in a nursing course were more likely to fail the NCLEX-RN than those with a higher percentile rank and no Ds or Fs.