These variables are identified as: past experiences, age, attitudes, state of emotion, system of support, prognosis, finances and the totality of elements in the person's experience. As a patient's comfort needs change, the nurse's interventions change, as well. Background The tablet devices may have their advantages but some people choose to be against it. As active participants on strenghthening and enhancing comfort of every patients, they engage themselves on activities to achieve and maintain a certain level of their optimal health. Through this method, nurses are able to ensure their patients are properly cared for, and that they are comfortable.
In providing comfort, Kolcaba incorporates the necessary assessments, diagnosis, plans, interventions, and evaluations. Ease comfort is focused more on the environment and psychological state of the patient. In 2005, she was awarded the Mary Hanna Journalism Second Place Award in the Best Practice Category by the American Society of Perianesthesia Nurses for a co-written article published in the Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing. In addition, since Kolcaba's theory includes the healthcare needs of the patients, best medical practices and solutions, and intervening variables, the patients treated under this theory of comfort will show best outcomes regarding their health. For example if one experiences severe pain, then the consumption of proper painkillers will bring relief from the pain. She is co-coordinator and volunteer nurse in a Parish Nurse program serving a homeless or low income population. One of the many roles of a nurse is to make sure patients are well cared for and comfortable.
Springer Publishing Company, New York. Assessing patients for their level of comfort utilizing a positive, holistic manner is important for measuring effectiveness of comforting strategies. Article includes testimony from a student nurse who applied comfort care to practice. Comfort Theory: A unifying framework to enhance the practice environment. Holistic comfort: Operationalizing the construct as a nurse sensitive outcome. Comfort measures are geared to addressing disease processes and regaining homeostasis. This paper is written to look at the importance of nursing care to terminally ill patients.
Additional sources with commentary Kolcaba, K. I will recommend this theory and look forward to discussing it among colleagues in the future. A patient is the individual, family, institution, and community that is in need of health care. There are three forms of comfort presented: relief, ease and transcendence and all three can be seen in the contexts of: physical, psychospiritual, environmental, and sociocultural. It is a process that is subjective and requires interpretation, sensitivity, imagination, and active participation Rodgers, B. There are countless variations of using interventions within different contexts to ensure best patient care. These needs are modified by intervening variables which are factors that nurses cannot change such as poverty or a diagnosis.
I will seek to illustrate my philosophy with the knowledge and nursing experience I have. Image: Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 23 4 , 237-240. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 1178-1184. Relief comfort usually comes in the form of pain management through medications. The theory is demonstrated in a series of environments; pediatrics, end of life situations, wound care, post-operation situations, and general nursing care. Intervening variables are factors that nurses have little control of and are least likely to change over time.
Critical Care Nursing Quarterly,18 4 :66-76, 1996. The comfort theory as described by Ms. This can be done by administering analgesia or cleaning up their room and making sure they are comfortable in bed. Article also includes how the word has been used in the history of nursing, from Nightingale 1859 , Harmer 1926 , Goodnow 1935 , Orlando 1961 , Watson 1979 and Hamilton 1989 § 1991 Published article: A taxonomic structure for the concept of nursing. Assumptions Kolcaba describes assumptions of person, health, environment and nursing within the Comfort Theory. She was also given the Marie Haug Student Award for Excellence in Aging Studies from Case Western Reserve Univeristy in 1997.
Kolcaba describes comfort as holistic, illustrating there are three aspects to comfort; relief, ease and transcendence. Theory of Comfort is a simple and basic theory that can be applied to a variety of situations easily because it addresses the basic needs of a patient. In this theory, the role of a nurse is to assess a patient's comfort needs and create a to meet those needs. · Began development of cell grid diagraming types of comfort and context in which comfort occurs § 1994 Published article: A theory of holistic comfort in nursing. It can be argued that proper nursing care is mandatory to ensure that terminally ill patients receive proper medical attention and care from professional nurses. This theory has been a guiding frame for a lot of studies and researches.
Introduction Nursing care is a core ingredient that determines the recovery and comfort of any patient and especially the ones with terminal illness. Kolcaba gracefully combines the science of nursing, in administering pain medications, with the art of nursing, in offering compassion, to enhance care. In this paper, I relate my own personal beliefs with that of a popular nursing theorist. These questionnaires have also been translated into many different languages and customized for different patient populations see web site leading me to believe that the concept of comfort is universal. Just send us an e-mail and we will try to respond to your queries in the soonest time. The extent of the peaceful death can be measured through a comfort questionnaire given to the family at an appropriate time.