Comfort is a term with contemporary and historical associations with nursing. Since the time of Florence Nightingale, it has been used as one of the most desirable outcomes of nursing care. Nurses continuously work to provide comfort to their patients. However, greater technological innovations in medicine have relegated the importance of nursing comfort interventions. Often, the definition of comfort is imprecise and lacks consistency among patients. In 1994, Katharine Kolcaba developed the Comfort Theory (CT). After analyzing the concept of comfort in several different disciplines, including nursing, she developed three forms of comfort and four contexts of the human experience. A classifying structure was created to guide for the assessment, measurement, and evaluation of patient comfort. Kolcaba became the first nursing theorist to create a holistic definition to the term comfort. The application of CT in nursing has given light to an area that was difficult to completely understand. Thesis statement: Comfort Theory is not used frequently enough in nursing care and should have widespread adoption because it improves patient outcomes, lessens fear in individuals undergoing treatment or palliative care, and improves patient compliance.
Description of Comfort Theory
Katharine Kolcaba’s deeply spiritual mother was instrumental in forming her early ideas about comfort. She was born to a very reserved family in Cleveland, Ohio on 1944. She received a diploma in nursing at St. Luke’s Hospital in 1965, and was one of the first RN to MSN graduates from Case Western Reserve University in 1987. She went on to earn her PhD in nursing from Case Western Reserve in 1997 and received certification as a clinical nurse specialist in gerontolo...
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... fear in individuals undergoing treatment or palliative care, and improve patient compliance. Implementation of this theory has also demonstrated administrative benefits to healthcare institutions. In research studies, CT has decreased hospital expenditures, reduced readmission rates, and improved patient satisfaction. The theory is beneficial to nursing by guiding interventions to promote comfort and to help the nurse assess and decide the best interventions to care for their patients. Future work should include incorporating CT into all areas of healthcare practice to satisfy The Joint Commission guidelines for pain management standards. CT should continue to be incorporated in the framework for all nursing practice. When comfort is emphasized in nursing care, nurses will gain more admiration for their field and more respect from their patients and families.
In nursing, the patient is often viewed as the main priority of the nursing staff. The nurse works to provide care for the patient based on the patient 's admitting diagnosis. However, the patient must be looked at as a part of the greater system they exist in such as their family or home environment. While the patient may be ill due to a bacterial infection or virus, their family environment also plays a role in their overall health and wellness.
Physical pain is more easily addressed by the administration of medication or a non-pharmaceutical intervention like repositioning, or the application of heat or cold. Nursing care on a general medical unit is about patient and family centered care which is in alignment with Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort. A large portion of the patients seen on this type of unit have multiple comorbidities and challenging social situations that require assessment of their past health history, their support system, and their current living situation. All of this is taken into consideration in multidisciplinary rounds where data that is collected is communicated to all disciplines and a plan of care developed for each patient. The unit which I currently manage assembles our multidisciplinary unit daily. Needs are identified and assigned to the team members who include social work, care management and therapies in addition to the nurses and the providers. Since the team meets daily there is an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of the interventions prescribed. Nursing care management is integral in this work as part of the assessment, planning, and coordination of care in the hospital
Jean Watson has earned many different degrees and is highly decorated in the field of nursing. In 1966 she earned a master’s degree in psychiatric-mental health nursing, followed by her doctorate in 1973. After obtaining her doctorate she became Nursing faculty at the University of Colorado. Her position has varied over the years, ranging from instructor to dean of the undergraduate program. While working at the university Jean helped establish the Center for Human Caring, which sponsors activities and projects that foster human caring. Watson has received nine honorary doctorial degrees and countless other awards. She has also authored 11 books, the first one being published in 1979. This is just a quick overview of the education ...
Once upon a time, my best friend, Bryan Martinez, often heard his mother’s medical conversations with friends. One day at school, our teacher confronted Mrs. Martinez and told her that she was able tell that Bryan was a son from a nurse. Apparently there was an incident at school where a little boy was acting out and Bryan told our teacher that the little boy was agitated, and to give him some medication to calm him down. As demonstrated by Bryan, nursing is ongoing profession that promotes the health and well-being of individuals.
Findings. Pain has many different meanings to many people. What is important to know as a nurse or health care provider is that pain is what the patient says it is. It is not the nurse or provider’s place to determine what the patient’s pain is but rather take an in-depth history and assessment. Using this assessment and history can therefore help treat your patient’s pain accordingly. Also pain theories have been proposed and used the implications of nursing practice in regard to pain.
End of life pain management is an important function of hospice organizations. Families and patients alike are comforted by the fact that, at the end, there are resources which allow for a comfortable death. Much of the quality of hospice care is determined by patient family members. In 2005, the Brown Medical school conducted research with regard to t...
The general idea of, K, is that a nurse must have knowledge in the diversity of cultures, ethics, and education. The significance of this faction being that if the nurse is cognizant of the patient 's culture, beliefs, family values, support systems, and education level, a more thorough and comprehensive plan of care can be formulated. The premise of, S, is that a nurse must be skilled in the ability to communicate with and advocate for the patient, assess for and properly treat pain, and incorporate the needs and concerns of the patient and their family. The significance of this group and development of these skills include the achievement of pain control, increased rehabilitation periods, and an increase in patient/family satisfaction. The theme of, A, requires that a nurse maintains an open attitude toward the patient and to respect and validate the nurse-patient relationship, which will aid in a positive nurse-patient
In addition to the complete blood count the doctor had also ordered new electrolytes to be drawn up that day. Electrolytes are ions that are present in the human body and require a particular balance in order for cells to function normally (Pagana & Pagana, 2010). The electrolytes the doctor ordered included, sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphate and magnesium (Pagana & Pagana, 2010). From these findings only sodium, an electrolyte involved in fluid regulation, pH balance and muscle contractions was found to be elevated (Pagana & Pagana, 2010). At five days post-op her sodium level was mildly high at 148mmol/l and on the date of my care it was 150mmol/l, higher than the normal of 137-145mmol/l.
Comfort measures are crucial for the dying patient and their loved ones. Comfort measures, not only, include pain management but also massage, music, position changes, and heat, which are all just as important. Palliative care is an extremely important aspect of nursing. Palliative care “focuses more broadly on improving life and providing comfort to people of all ages with serious, chronic, and life-threatening illnesses” (http://www.WebMD.com). The ultimate goal of comfort measures and palliative care is to ensure that the patient has a more relaxed and peaceful death (End of Life care: An Ethical Overview, 16). Other important aspects of palliative care consists of hygiene measures, which includes keeping the patient dry and clean, offering food and fluids often, and keeping the patient, along with the family, as comfortable as possible. Some try to argue that drugs, like Morphine, should not be given to the dying because it speeds up the dying process, but I believe that their death is inevitable and it is best to make the patient as comfortable as possible. For many families, the thought of losing their family member is too much to handle but with pain management, at least, the patient gets to die a relatively pain-free death. This can be comforting for the family. Although, there are pain medications that can suppress the respiratory and cardiovascular system, the patient, typically, has a much more peaceful death, as opposed to not having any sort of drug.
Comfort is important to caring in nursing because it is the nurse 's job to try and help the patient feel at ease and be pain free.
When I chose to embark on the mission to becoming a registered nurse, I knew I would be entering a challenging, yet rewarding career. Ever since I was a little girl, I was always surrounded with family in the healthcare field, and growing up in a small town I could see the kind and humble care that they provided. This created a profound identity of the nurse I wanted to become—compassionate, thorough, and humble.
Nurses are an equally important part of each client’s life. Nurses provide stable care to each client, answers their questions, gives medications and treatments, and assists with medical procedures. They also have the responsibility to explain to clients and family members what they should and should not do as they go through treatment and recovery. Nurses must quickly respond to patients needs. Every individual nurse has his or her own unique way of caring. There are so many ways to show caring that the possibilities are never ending. Nurse’s support, comfort, and help allow the patients to recover to the best of their ability. Their experiences in dealing with different patients that have unique situations on a daily basis helps the nurses become better caregivers. Therefore, every nurse is capable of demonstrating care in their respective environments.
Nursing behaviors that improve patient comfort are as simple as positioning and repositioning, knowing patients special comfort habits, and advocating for family presence (Kolcaba & DiMarco, 2005). It is important to use a measurement tool to assess comfort and remember to reassess for a positive outcome or plan a new intervention. Comfort is associated with the pursuit of healthy behavior, increased patient satisfaction, and better cost-benefit ratios (Kolcaba & DiMarco, 2005). Although Watson’s caring model is a broad philosophy that applies to nursing practice in general, nurses utilizing this theory would find Kolcaba’s middle-range comfort theory aligns well within the framework those
She first developed an interest in nursing during World War I because she felt an inner need to help wounded and sick soldiers (“Virginia Avenue Henderson – the mother,” 1996). She started her nursing career in 1918 at the US Army School of Nursing and later became a nursing instructor at the Norfolk Protestant Hospital in Virginia (Smith, 1997). Henderson received her education during the empiricist era of nursing, which focused on needs however, she felt her theoretical ideas developed and advanced throughout her nursing career and experiences in the medical surgical unit. This is where she realized the importance of helping the patient return to independence so that recovery can continue after hospitalization. Henderson became familiar first with physiological principals while obtaining her graduate education. The understanding of these components became the major foundation for her care in nursing practice. (McEwen & Wills,
At the age of 36, mom decided to return back to college to obtain her nursing degree. This wasn’t a hard decision for her to make. The April before she enrolled in school my great grandmother passed away. This major dilemma played a major role in mom’s returning back to school. She had taken care of my great grandmother for months before she passed away, and decided that she wanted to make an impact on the lives of geriatrics.