Comfort: Concept Analysis Concept analysis deals with the careful job of guiding clearness to the meaning of concepts used in science, according to McEwen, M., & Wills, E. (2010) in Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice. This paper will analyze the concept of comfort which comes from Katarine Kolcaba’s Comfort theory. Comfort is the state that is experienced automatically by receivers of comfort interventions. It involves the holistic experience of being strengthened through having comfort needs addressed as defined by McEwen and Wills (2010). Comfort is a key concept and central value of nursing. As stated by Tutton, E., & Seers, K. (2003), An exploration of the concept of comfort, comfort is defined as a state, linked to outcomes …show more content…
Y. (1994), A theory of holistic comfort for nursing, that comfort is defined for nursing as the satisfaction (actively, passively or co-operatively) of the basic human needs for relief, ease or transcendence arising from health care situations that are stressful. No matter what situation patients may be confronted with, the concept of comfort is a vital need and should be a considerable need across life. Literature Review Although nursing literatures find it hard to easily define comfort, it is used often in the outlining the attributes and outcomes of several nursing concepts. Comfort is used within the nursing practice in multiple forms. Some of the times comfort is the focus of practice are with pain, during labor, and end of life. The concept of comfort has been at the far front of nursing practice. Concept analysis can lead to more comfort related research and interventions that patients can take advantage of. One of the articles chosen for review was by Pearson, E. M. (2009), Comfort and its measurement--a literature review, which was critiqued. Here the article states that its aim is to identify measures fitting for evaluation of physical comfort in an area of clinical settings or specialized areas. The sample size used in their research was of 50 participants. This review has recognized logical devices for wheelchair seating comfort and wearable devices and explored a range of other ways of attempting to measure this
“If a patient is cold, if a patient is feverish, if a patient is faint, if he is sick after taking food, if he has a bed-sore, it is generally the fault of not of the disease, but of the nursing. I use the word nursing for want of a better” (Nightingale, 1860, p. 8). While Nightingale stressed the impact of one’s environment to promote healing, Virginia Henderson aimed to establish on the fundamental needs as a knowledge base to guide Professional nursing practice. Henderson emphasized on fourteen components required for effective nursing care which includes: breathing normally, eating and drinking adequately, elimination of body wastes, movement and posturing, sleep and rest, select suitable clothes-dress and undress, maintaining body temperature, keeping body clean and well groomed, avoiding dangers in the environment, communication, worship according to one’s faith, work accomplishments, play or participate in various forms of recreation, and learn, discover, or satisfy the curiosity (Fernandes et al., 2015). Her division of the fourteen components acknowledged patient needs with a holistic approach that is applied through the nursing process in a clinical setting.
Regrettably, the existence of nursing depends on the medical inadequacy of others. Unfortunately, nursing exists because people get hurt, cannot care for themselves, or need assistance with daily activities. Carol Taylor (2011), author of Fundamentals of Nursing: The Art and Science of Nursing Care, writes, “Nursing care involves any number of activities, from carrying out complicated technical procedures to something as seemingly as holding a hand” (p. 5). Taylor explains it is the duty of a nurse not only to learn the pertinent skills but also to bond with and comfort others. Nurses have to do and become many things: They must be stern when necessary, compassionate when needed, open minded
The nurse also has to be aware of the nature of the nurse-patient relationship, the environment in which it takes place in, as well as an understanding of the context and the moment of the interactions in order to share a meaningful experience. Finally, nurses have to be passionate about his or her career. Nurse’s care and tend to the patients’ needs because nurses are passionate about the career. Even though the fundamental pattern of personal knowing, it provides a holistic nature of knowing. Many humanistic theories and models of nursing have been derived from personal knowing such as Peplau’s interpersonal relation theory, Kolcaba’s comfort theory, and Jean Watson’s theory of caring.
This theory has been a guiding frame for a lot of studies and researches. Some of the areas are nurse midwifery, perioperative nursing, urinary bladder control, orthopedic nursing, etc. For clinical practice, the perianesthesia nurses incorporated comfort theory in managing their patients’ comfort. The comfort theory was also used as a teaching philosophy in a fast- track nursing education program for students. Kolcaba developed the General Comfort Questionnaire to measure holistic comfort in a sample of hospital and community participants. She also asserts that emphasizing and
There are many concepts in nursing theory that need further clarification. A concept analysis can provide a thorough explanation of a term in nursing theory that will help healthcare professionals better communicate. The Walker and Avant approach to perform a concept analysis was specifically formulated with nurses in mind (McEwen & Wills, 2014). Walker and Avant proposed a concept analysis be used to further understand the meaning of a term or concept in anticipation that those using the term would have the same understanding (McEwen & Wills, 2014). When a term or concept is in question or needs further questioning in any field of nursing, a concept analysis is indicated (McEwen & Wills, 2014). Walker and Avant’s concept analysis is comprised of eight steps; select a concept, determine the aim of the concept, list all possible uses of concept, defining attributes, model case, alterative case (borderline, related, contrary, invented, and illegitimate), list antecedents and consequences, and lastly list empirical referents (McEwen & Wills, 2014). The defining attributes are deemed most beneficial in obtaining comprehension due to the fact that these attributes show which show up in regularity when relating to the concept (Linda & Judith, 2011). Using the Walker and Avant concept analysis model a formal concept analysis will be performed on the term “pain”. Middle range nursing theory gave the example of pain as one of many concepts used in nursing (McEwen & Wills, 2014).
The art of human caring is one of the most essential parts of the nursing profession. Caring is not something that you learn to do, but something that is within you. In nursing, it is important to know what kind of nurse you want to be as well as the care you intend to provide to your patients. The patient is the center of nursing, and it is your responsibility to make sure they are receiving the best care that they can receive. One of the most important things is to be able to set aside personal beliefs and morals in order to provide patient centered care. The way that you approach and care for a patient is either going to make or break the effect of the care you will be implementing to the patient.
Conceptual analysis is integral in understanding nursing theory. According to Walker and Avant (1995), concept analysis allows nursing scholars to examine the attributes or characteristics of a concept. It can be used to evaluate a nursing theory and allows for examination of concepts for relevance and fit within the theory. The phenomena of pain will be discussed in this paper and how it relates to the comfort theory.
Pain is one of the most common reason patient seek out help. The concept of pain can affect every person is some form or way. Pain can stand alone as a theory or fix with other theories like Comfort, Self- care, and more. As a surgical nurse I need to have a higher understanding of the patients I care for to ensure they receive the best care. Concept analysis is a form of research that allows a person to explore a theory/ concept to the fullest degree in an organized way. This concept analysis will take Walker & Avant’s steps to form a better understanding into pain.
It is a mid-range theory because of the limited number of concepts and propositions, its low level of abstraction, and ease of application to actual practice (Petiprin, 2015). There are three steps required in order to practically use Kolcaba’s theory. In order to use the theory successfully, one must understand the technical definition of comfort and its origins, understand the relationships between the general concepts involved in the theory, and lastly, relate the general concepts to specific problems within the clinical situation to which it is being applied in order to enlighten practice and create research questions (Kolcaba,
Kristen M. Swanson’s Caring Theory is the solution in bridging the gap between nursing practice and theory. It offers an explanation of the links between patient well-being and the caring process (Tonges & Ray, 2011). Swanson explained that nurses should be able to demonstrate that they care about their patients, and that caring about their wellbeing is as important as their patients’ current medical problem (Tonges & Ray, 2011).
I will methodically analyze all parts of the study to assess the validity of the article, by contrasting and comparing the information provided, with previous literature. I will try to make sure that recommendations provided by the authors are congruous with nursing practice and beneficial to the advancement of it. I will as much as possible provide in depth detail of previous studies on the same topic that either support or contradict the analysis provided by this study and its authors.
The concept should be clear and distinct, unambiguously defined and well differentiated from other concepts, and should be applicable to the world and appropriate in context. Concept analysis is applied for the refinement and definition of concepts originating from nursing practice, nursing research and nursing theory (Maputle & Donavon, 2013), which helps to differentiate between similar and dissimilar concepts. Walker and Avant assert that concept analysis and development are fundamental processes required by nurse researchers who are attempting to measure the metaphysical phenomena of nursing, or in this study the midwifery practice.
15 Points Extra Credit Your choice of: Create a higher level thinking question that integrates two significant concepts (make sure the concepts are from different chapters). OR, create two multiple choice questions with 4 choices for each question. Respond to your own questions and they may not reflect concepts assessed on this OFS. For the multiple choice, indicate why your answer is the best answer and the others are not.
Middle range theories are created by translating and identifying lived experiences with a connection to well-being and nursing. In Katherine Kolcaba's Theory of Comfort she invested much energy analyzing the links and results of patients in connection to comfort. Katherine Kolcaba initially composed the Theory of Comfort given Alzheimer's and dementia patients. Be that as it may, Katherine herself has co-composed different articles about different extents of nursing identified with her hypothesis. Two late articles were composed applying her hypothesis to per anesthesia nursing and hospice nursing.
In the 1990s, Katharine Kolcaba developed the comfort theory, a theory that in our time may be relevant for several diagnoses and for all healthcare providers. It is a theory that is wrapped around “the satisfaction of the basic human needs for relief, ease, or transcendence arising from health care situations that are stressful.” (McEwen) She posed that comfort is viewed as an outcome of care that can promote or facilitate health-seeking behaviors. Kolcaba alleged that if enhanced comfort is achieved, patients, family members and nurses are strengthened to engage in health-seeking behaviors which will further enhance comfort. There are five major concepts highlighted in this theory and they include comfort, comfort care, comfort