Katharine 's Comfort Theory For Adult Open Heart Surgery Patients

The concepts of the comfort theory are clearly defined and the relationships are easily understood. This theory is simple and basic to nursing care. The taxonomic structure of comfort facilitates researchers’ development of comfort instruments for new settings (Kolcaba,1991).The first assertion of the theory stating that effective comfort interventions leads to increased comfort for patients , has been tested and supported with women with breast cancer (Kolcaba & Fox, 1999), persons with UI (Dowd, Kolcaba, & Steiner, 2000), persons in hospice (Kolcaba, Dowd, Steiner, & Mitzel, 2004). And stressed college students (Dowd, Kolcaba, Steiner, & Fashinapaur, 2007). Also, the second assertion was supported in the UI study, when patients with enhanced comfort showed increased HSBs.

The pre-operative stage is an important phase in patient’s surgery process. This is the time where the patients is experiencing a lot of anxiety issues and have questions regarding the impending procedure. To help ensure good patient outcomes, it is imperative to provide complete preoperative instructions and discharge instructions (Allison & George, 2014). It is the nurses’ duty to safe guard and protects the patient’s welfare during the surgical experience. Effective preoperative preparation is known to enhance postoperative pain management and recovery. Health professionals need to be cognizant of the contextual factors that influence patients’ preoperative experiences and give context appropriate care (Aziato & Adejumo, 2014).

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,

According to the American Heart Association (2015), heart failure is defined as “a chronic, progressive condition in which the heart muscle is unable to pump enough blood through to meet the body 's needs for blood and oxygen. Basically, the heart can 't keep up with its workload”. Congestive heart failure is a progressive illness that effects millions of Americans every year. Many other illnesses can lead to the development of congestive heart failure. Examples of these diseases include: coronary artery disease, past heart attack, high blood pressure, abnormal heart valve, heart muscle disease such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy or inflammation such as myocarditis, congenital heart disease, severe lung disease, diabetes, obesity and asthma. (American Heart Association, 2015 (Centers for

As our population’s longevity continues to grow, patients undergoing heart surgery will become older and sicker (Ettema, 2014). The unhealthy lifestyle choices that are existing in our society propose a higher risk for patients who have cardiac surgery to develop post-operative complications. This paper will be examining one of the five core competencies in relation to a specific patient population, clinical concern, and evidence based practice proposal that will educate patients pre-operation on lifestyle changes that will help prevent post-operative sternal surgical site infections.

We all know someone who has suffered from heart disease. Whether it was from a heart attack, congestive heart failure, or stroke, some type of cardiovascular disease has taken the life of someone we loved way too soon. This epidemic of heart disease must be stopped through the collaboration of physicians, nurses, law makers, and concerned citizens. The purpose of this paper is to examine cardiovascular disease, the risks associated with heart disease and obesity per Milo’s framework, comparison of obesity and Healthy People 2020 national goals, and finally the long-term and short-term goals and interventions selected for this paper.

CT has been adopted by many in the healthcare field. Southern New Hampshire Medical Center adopted CT to achieve Magnet Recognition Status. Components of CT have been incorporated in the National Intervention Classification, the National Outcomes Classification, and the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. The American Society of Peri-Anesthesia Nurses composed Comfort Management, a model initiated by nurses based on CT. The Comfort Questionnaire has been certified by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality since 2003. The Comfort Questionnaire has been used in many settings and translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Turkish, and Farsi. Comfort Theory and Practice: A Vision for Holistic Healthcare and Research has been translated into Japanese, attesting to the theory’s international appeal and utility.

The management of postoperative pain has received much interest nowadays. The intensity of postoperative pain depends on many factors such as type and duration of the surgery, type of anesthesia and analgesia used, and the patient’s mental and emotional status (11).

One of the scariest medical diagnoses a patient can receive from a physician is, their heart is not functioning properly. A malfunctioning heart will eventually lead to death if correction of the issue is not attempted. The heart supplies the entire body with oxygenated blood but also needs its own supply of oxygen rich blood. This is why coronary arteries are vital to the hearts ability to pump. A final option to correcting malfunctioning coronary arteries is a surgical procedure, coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Every year approximately 450,000 patients have CABG surgery in the United States (Mullen-Fortino & O 'Brien, 2008). Based on continuing healthcare trends, more and more people each year are having coronary artery issues, causing the need for CABG surgery to rise. Also patient demographics are changing, they are older, sicker, have more extensive coronary artery blockage / damage, and likely have poorer functioning ventricles of the heart (Sidebotham, McKee, Gillham & Levy, 2007). The nursing profession has a critical role in caring for the patients but also teaching and educating them before and after any procedure. Education and teaching has been implemented into evidence-based practice for years to facilitate better patient

Comfort is a freedom from pain or constraint. Comfort is state of ease not only to the body, but to the human mind as well. People’s minds were evolving and getting bigger and became highly functional trying to find the best way to change the face of life. With all the new inventions people passed the line of essentials. People acquired the comforts of life that took away the focus from what is necessary. Are the comforts making people’s lives exceedingly enjoyable? Or are they somehow limiting their ability to think and do daily tasks?

The developmental stages of the mid range theory of comfort are discussed in this article, which includes its philosophic orientation and its inductive, deductive, and retroductive reasoning. Other steps that are described are the concept analysis of comfort, the operationalization of the outcome of patient comfort, the application of the theory in previous nursing studies, and the evaluation of the current theory as it has been adapted for outcomes research. This article is a guide that shows how a concept grows, becomes embedded in theory, is tested, and is adapted for the rapidly changing health care environment. The theory of comfort

One thing that every human wants is to be comfortable, whether that is being comfortable in one’s own skin, having a comfortable life, or wanting to be comfortable as one lays on the couch watching television. Comfort is a very common desire in every aspect of life, however attaining this desire can be very challenging to accomplish.

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

Operational definitions used in the study include: metabolic syndrome, coronary artery bypass graft surgery and gender. Data for the investigation was reviewed by patient gender-i.e. male or female. In addition, all patients included in the study had undergone coronary

Patient satisfaction with their pain management and comfort level after open heart surgery. (Karabulut, Aktas, Gürçayir, Yilmaz, & Gökmen, 2015)