Defining Holism for the Elderly Population
Lisa Hartman, Kimberlee Mobley, Rachel Selvaggi, Nicole Varney
Sentara College of Health Sciences Defining Holism for the Elderly Population The elderly population has specific needs and challenges regarding care that are specialized based on the individual. Individualizing care consists of assessing client factors related to their needs, conditions, and situation (Brooks, 2011, p. 6) Meeting those needs is best done by integrating the biological, phycological, social, and spiritual dimensions of a person “recognizing that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (Halter, 2014, p. 640). The specialty practice of holistic nursing incorporates “nursing knowledge, theories, expertise and intuition to guide nurses in becoming therapeutic partners with people in their care” (Thornton, 2015). This holistic gerontological nursing approach creates an interconnected plan addressing the mind, body, and spirit for the unique individual to identify “patient needs related to health
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89). Visual changes, mobility, and changes relevant to advancing age are important to identify to make sure the environment of each client is adjusted to be compatible with their altered physical competence to promote safety. Other environmental factors regarding client comfort, adequate rest, and pain management contribute to the physiological component of the holistic model (Eliopoulos, 2014, p. 89). Older adults have at least one chronic condition challenging their health status and quality of life compounding the complexity of treatment and ongoing care. Client education regarding maintaining proper nutrition, activity level, and environmental and personal safety measures is an essential aspect of managing their health to protect
The most impactful class was Holistic Care of the Older Adult, with the interview of the older adult and analyzation of their life (McLean, 2016). I learned that our older population allowed me to dig deeper into my heart to learn and understand and appreciate the beauty of life itself. When I care for adult population, I now practice with a different attitude and have found that listening, learning, and understanding each population is beneficial to my practice, how I care for each individual patient, and to their overall well-being spiritually and culturally. However, as a pediatric nurse, I believe that applying my new knowledge into holistically caring for the families is the difference between basic nursing care and striving to provide excellent care. Nursing Research, has allowed me to delve deeper into complex evidence-based and peer reviewed articles. I learned to understanding the different types of articles, validity, sampling, and statistical information while using concrete thinking of complex issues (Cauble, 2017). I have a deeper thought process, understand complex concepts, and have the desire to provide my patient of any age, the best care possible by using evidence-based
It helps to define how a nurse’s interactions with patients establish trust and a working relationship between the nurse and the patient. Deane & Fain (2015) studied Peplau’s Theory as a way to help nursing students with their relationships with older adults. With the increase of geriatric patients that will occur over the next few years, Deane & Fain (2015) felt that young nurses coming out of school my have some attitudes of ageism. Therefore, they wanted to determine if Peplau’s Theory would help these new graduates with their nurse-patient relationships. They concluded that Peplau’s Theory would be beneficial in teaching holistic care and communication to nurses. “Through the fostering of holistic practice, nurses will have an increased ability to process the feelings, thoughts, and emotions they may have toward their patients” (Deane & Fain, 2015).
Every person’s needs must be recognized, respected, and filled if he or she must attain wholeness. The environment must attuned to that wholeness for healing to occur. Healing must be total or holistic if health must be restored or maintained. And a nurse-patient relationship is the very foundation of nursing (Conway et al 2011; Johnson, 2011). The Theory recognizes a person’s needs above all. It sets up the conducive environment to healing. It addresses and works on the restoration and maintenance of total health rather than only specific parts or aspect of the patient’s body or personality. And these are possible only through a positive healing relationship between the patient and the nurse (Conway et al, Johnson).
There are changes in the demographic as the population grows older, the number of older adult’s increases and thus, there is an increase of proportion of patients that are older adults for nurses to take care of (Wells, Y., Foreman, P., Gething, L., & Petralia, W., 2004). The nurses are there to assist and support the older adults in achieving wellness within their situation through empowering the clients (Touhy, et al (2012). Caring for older adults is important as there is an increase in population with deteriorating health. When caring for a client it is important to incorporate Jean Watson’s caring theories and Carative Factors to help influence and support the care. She encourages nurses to co-participate within the caring process by establishing unity and trust between the nurse and client. First, this paper will explain a situation in where I cared for an older adult and it will then introduce Jean Watson’s lower order needs, specifically the need for activity and how it relates to the older adult I cared for. Lastly, this paper will explain the nursing interventions I implemented to meet the lower order need, with a discussion of Carative Factor #4 relating to the client.
Thornton, L. (2014, January 1). Welcome to AHNA: What is Holistic Nursing? Retrieved November 12, 2014, from
Holistic nursing focuses on promoting health and wellness. It is care that is based on the theory of a balance between the body, mind and spirit. Its goal is to heal the body person as a whole. Holistic assessment is a practice that is specialized on nursing knowledge, theories, expertise and intuition to guide nurses in becoming therapeutic partners with their patients. It recognizes and gathers information about the totality of the human being, the interconnectedness of body, mind, emotion, spirit, socio-cultural, relationship, context, and environment. This paper is based on a holistic assessment of a patient from my job. A 72 years old Caucasian.
Attitudes are the foundation of quality of care for older adults. Among health care professionals, discrimination and stereotypical behaviors are very prevalent, even though more often than not these individuals do not realize their actions are ageist. “Ageism hinders people from seeing the potential of aging, anticipation their own aging, and being responsive to the needs of older people” (McGuire, Klein & Shu-Li, 2008, p. 12). Attitudes are directly correlated with how individuals age and whether individuals stay health and live longer (McGuire, Klein & Shu-Li, 2008, p. 12). The care that older adults receive from healthcare professionals is directly influenced by that provider’s attitude about growing older. All too often, health care providers rely on a patient’s chronological age rather than their functional age when determining their needs and what interventions are prescribed. Another issue lies in providers viewing the complaints of older patients as a part of “normal aging”, therefore potentially missing life-threatening problems that may have been easily resolved. “Age is only appropriate in health treatment as a secondary factor in making medical decisions, and it should not be used as a stand-alone factor” (Nolan, 2011, p. 334).
Miller, Carol A. (2012). Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults. (sixth edition). Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
This interactive grand theory is grounded in humanist philosophy, which expresses the belief that humans are unitary beings and energy fields in constant interaction with the universal energy field. This model guides the nurse who is interested in “physiologic” and “psychological” adoptions (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p. 177). This model views the nurse as holistic adaptive system constantly interacting with different stimuli. And also explains how different sets of interrelated systems maintain a balance between various stimuli to promote individual and environmental transformation (Alkrisat & Dee, 2014). This model creates a framework to provide care for individuals in health and “in acute, chronic, or terminal illness” (Shah, Abdullah, & Khan, 2015, p. 1834). It focuses on improving basic life processes of individuals, families, groups of people; nurses see communities as holistic adaptive systems. It consists of three basic assumptions: philosophical, scientific, and cultural. And it also contains many defined concepts about the environment, health, person, goal of nursing, adaptation, focal, contextual, and residual stimuli, cognator and regulator subsystem, and stabilizer and innovator control processes (McEwen & Wills, 2014, p.
Miller, C. A. (2009). Nursing for wellness in older adults: Theory and practice (5th ed.). Cleveland, Ohio: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Participant 4 stated, “I think just basically being there for the family as well…I think even just a cup of tea can go a long way with any family (McCallum & McConigley, 2013). Another theory that intertwines with Watson’s is Barbara Dossey’s Theory of Integral Nursing. Dossey articulates, “Healing is not predictable, it is not synonymous with curing but the potential for healing is always present even until one’s last breath,” (Parker and Smith, 2015, p. 212). Dossey believes that integral nursing is a comprehensive way to organize different situations in fours perspectives (nurse, health, person and environment) of reality with the nurse as an instrument in the healing process by bringing his or her whole self into a relationship with another whole self. In the HDU, the RN’s interacted with each patient while providing high quality care to create a healing environment for the patient and family even when their prognosis was otherwise. Patient 3 specified that “We still have to provide care...and make the family feel that they are comfortable and looked after” (McCallum & McConigley, 2013). These theories ultimately show the importance of a nurse through the aspects of caring to create and maintain a healing environment that is not only beneficial to the patient but to their loved ones as
The concept of person refers to the recipient of nursing care, such that no person is the object of care and no aspect of wellbeing is left out (Arnold & Boggs, 2001; Thorne, Canam, Dahinten, Hall, Henderson, & Kirkham, 1998). This not only includes disease and illness states, but also psychological, social and spiritual dimensions. Therefore, factors such as gender, lifestyle, behaviors, beliefs, values, coping skills, habits, perceptions and lived experiences are considered (Arnold & Boggs, 2011). This holistic and multi-centered approach also extends to families, communities, and populations (Schim et al., 2007). The concept of person is central to nursing theory and research, and is fundamental to the, “Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses,” as outlined by the Canadian Nurses Association (2008). In practice, ‘person’ is used to guide client teaching and nursing interventions (Kozier, Berman, Snyder, Buck, Yiu, & Stamler, 2014).
Taking everything in and questioning it gives a more well rounded and in depth knowledge to base each philosophy off of. The main purpose is to care for the individual and I believe holistic approach is a good way to do so. Holistic nursing places emphasis on both the environment and treatment of the patient to include patient’s uniqueness as human beings along with their cultural views, values, and beliefs. (Flagg, 2015). Nursing can be very broad. It is goal oriented to each patient so that his or her individual health needs are met. Some patients could benefit tremendously just by taking them outside to get fresh air or by just sitting down to talk to
When someone hears holistic nursing their mind may immediately jump to a form of hippie nursing with little to none scientific background or accuracy in the quality of care. This belief however is extremely inaccurate as to what holistic nursing really is. Holistic care can be defined as to when the nurse honors the patient’s wishes and takes into consideration the social, physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of the patient’s life (American Holistic Nurses Association, n.d.). Holistic nursing is growing in popularity amongst patients because of its open communication between nurse and patient, its unique approach to health and healing, as well as the comprehensive care it can provide.
According to DeBrew, author of “Can being ageist harm your older adult patients?” stereotypes and discrimination are evident in various aspects of patient care. “Ageism [is] defined as stereotyping or discrimination aimed at older adults and a lack of knowledge about normal changes of aging and presentation of illness in older adults (. . .)” (DeBrew, 2015). DeBrew (2015) states, “research findings suggest that ageism is common in healthcare” (DeBrew, 2015). Ageism is not only an issue in the healthcare setting, but also among older adults as well as their families. When ageism is present in the healthcare setting it poses