The importance of the exercise of alternative medicines and complementary therapies (MATC) for the Nursing profession has meant gathering about the work done by our discipline through the very history of care as science and art. In this document the different aspects that form an epistemological framework of (MATC) part of the body of knowledge of nursing are reflected. The result of a systematic review of the literature, which focuses on the fundamental principles that guide the appropriation of ancestral and multicultural care practices; - not new to our profession - and recognized as the historical and cultural heritage of humanity. Such is the case of traditional Chinese medicine, Mexican, Indian and Ayurveda. Likewise it is to recognize the theoretical body of own scientific knowledge; demonstrating the capacity of Nursing as a liberal and independent profession to approach the human being within the holistic care, which allows to empower the professionals in this specialty, according to the level of development of our discipline and the advances indicated by different theorists of the which address paradigms of care from integrality, transculturality to unitary systems. At the same time, the importance of experiences and training models in Nursing, which address care immersed in non-conventional therapies, providing great contributions to health systems, is denoted. such as the elimination of social inequalities, gaps and access barriers, typical of each of the countries