According to McEwen (2014), the major concepts in the theory of comfort include: 1. Comfort: “The satisfaction of the basic human needs for relief, ease, or transcendence arising from health care situations that are stressful” (p. 244). Basically, this is the pleasure gained from the patient’s needs for relief in their medical condition. 2. Comfort care: The art of administering comforting actions by the nurse to the patient. 3. Comfort measures: The comforting actions done to meet particular comfort needs. 4. Comfort needs: Health care needs (physical, social, environmental, psychospiritual) for comfort that arises from stressful health care situations. 5. Health-seeking behaviors: The active process of seeking ways to change one’s lifestyle or environment to increase his or her health. 6. Institutional integrity: “The values, financial stability, and wholeness of health care organizations at local, regional, state, and national levels” (Theoretical Model). In other words, it is the reliability and truthfulness of healthcare at an institution. 7. Intervening variables: Other factors such as a patient’s background or emotional state that influence the level of total comfort (Theoretical Model). 8. Enhanced comfort: The positive trend over time of the patient’s comfort level through comfort interventions (Theoretical Model). Metaparadigm Concepts The four metaparadigm concepts as defined by Katherine Kolbaca are the following: 1. Nursing: “The intentional assessment of
Millions of dollars are spent on healthcare every year in USA but the health of the beneficiaries has not increased accordingly. Just providing healthcare is not enough; quality healthcare with long term benefits should be the aim of the healthcare providers. I have studied and worked in certain multi-specialty hospitals and government facilities in my home town. I have seen corruption and frauds happening at various levels and hence wanted to study about how such non profit and
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.
In my nursing practice I frequently care for long term elderly residents on ventilators and who suffer from stage 3 or 4 pressure ulcers, diabetic, venous ulcers etc. Instead of simply providing pain medications and wound treatment to ease their pain or giving medications to relax them, I wanted to learn ways to enhance the comfort of these residents. This led me to learn more about Katherine Kolcaba’s theory of comfort. I found her theory to be useful in understanding the theory of comfort. Hence as a nurse, it became important for me to analyze, evaluate and research more on its applicability in the world of nursing and also in other health care disciplines.
You have to show that you care, because if you don’t things will only be negative and later on will become complicated and stressful. Integrity is a very strong virtue that anyone can have because it shows that you can be trusted and that you are a very honest person. Nowadays, they have a system called HIPAA, which is used in hospitals nationwide. HIPAA is used for
She states if specific comfort needs of a patient are met, the patient experiences comfort in the sense of relief. An example of how this pertains to pain is a patient who receives pain medication in post-operative care is receiving relief comfort (Kolcaba's Theory of Comfort, n.d.).
I feel that an individual should have a foundation in ethics in relation to health care. It is important because the community puts their trust into health care organizations and professionals. According to Flite and Harman (2013), an organization must have a code of ethics in order to maintain the community’s trust.
The comfort theory is a nursing theory that was first developed in the 1990s by Katharine Kolcaba. The Theory of Comfort considers patients to be individuals, families, institutions, or communities in need of health care (Petiprin, 2015). The environment in which this theory can be applied is in any aspect of the patient, family, or institutional surroundings that can be controlled by a nurse or a patient’s loved one by means to enhance their comfort. Health is considered to be optimal functioning in the patient, as defined by the patient, group, family, or community (Kolcaba, 2005).
This category deals with the physical well being of the client through care. The category is made up of four subcategories, which include reduction of risk potential, physiological adaptation, basic care and comfort and pharmacological and parenteral therapies. Examples under this category include non-pharmacological comfort interventions, pharmacological pain management and therapeutic procedures.
In my nursing practice, I frequently care for dying patients. Instead of simply providing medication to ease pain during the dying process, I wanted to learn about ways to enhance the comfort of the dying patients and possibly assist their family during a difficult time. This desire led me to examine the conceptual model of comfort. Through my research of the concept of comfort care at end of life, I discovered Katherine Kolcaba’s theory of comfort. I found her theory to be useful in describing the concept of comfort care and decided to further analyze it for a more thorough understanding of its usefulness and applicability to nursing practice. Nurses are the ones in direct contact with their patients, providing relief from certain discomforts, continuously assessing, monitoring and providing care that will ensure the patient is at ease. According to Kolcaba, “Comfort is the desirable state that nurses would want for their patients.” (Kolcaba, 2003). With its fundamental emphasis on physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental aspects of comfort, the Theory of Comfort care will contribute to a proactive and multifaceted approach to care. This paper aims to describe the origin of Comfort Theory, its primary concepts and relational statements, review of the literature, critique describing its strength and limitation as a middle range theory
The four assumptions in CT are: The need for comfort is basic; persons experience comfort holistically; self comforting measures can be healthy or unhealthy; and when achieved in healthy ways, enhanced comfort leads to greater productivity (Kolcaba, 2003). These assumptions are testable and useful. As a middle range theory, CT has a limited number of propositions which reflect generalizations beyond specific clinical
Pain and comfort as a rule are considered opposing in the needs of human beings. Pain is defined as an unpleasant sensory or emotional experience associated with potential tissue damage. Pain can be divided into categories of long-term pain or short-term pain and by the type of pain, level of pain, location of pain, and ease of solving the pain. Frequently, there is no way to completely manage pain, specifically in end-of-life care. Pain is at
Integrity is a deeply individualized phenomenon. It is the correlation between a person’s actions and their beliefs, principles, or convictions. Additionally, integrity correlates an individual’s actions and their self-understanding. When an individual identifies himself or herself as a nurse, there are often underlying personal characteristics that accompany. For example, most nurses identify themselves as caring individuals far before they become a practicing nurse. Ultimately, acting within an individual’s self-understanding is a demonstration of integrity (Nelson & Gordon, 2006). The integrity of the nursing profession has been challenged as the goals of healthcare delivery have shifted to improving the bottom line, leaving one to question if nursing has lost sight of its foundation, caring. In her reflection of the Caring Conference, Lou Reida’s expressed, “… I have been challenged to reflect on how I, as a future leader, will be able to find a balance between nurturing the caring spirit of nurses and the business component of healthcare,” (Reida, BSN, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to discuss how integrity of nursing may be compromised and the importance of leadership in the persistence of integrity throughout the profession.
Comfort is defined by Merriam-Webster’s dictionary (2014) as “a state or situation in which you are relaxed and do not have any physically unpleasant feelings caused by pain, heat, cold, etc.” or as “a state or feeling of being less worried, upset, frightened, etc., during a time of trouble or emotional pain.” Dictionary.com (2014) defines comfort as “a feeling of relief or consolationm” or “a person or thing that gives consolation,”or “ a state of ease and satisfaction of bodily wants, with freedom from pain and anxiety.” Dictionary.com (2014) lists the origin of the word comfort as coming from the 13th century Old French term confort, meaning “source of alleviation or relief.” One can see there are multiple meanings and interpretations of the word comfort. This paper will set forth to discuss the word comfort as a concept and its interpretation and use in many disciplines, including its significance in nursing.
that directs human behavior.4 Patients have implicit and explicit comfort needs that, when met, strengthen them and motivate them to perform better in therapy, rehabilitation, and learning/adhering to new health regimens.2 Second, needs are a force that is driven by social and cultural politics.4 Patient comfort needs are driven by expectations, and patients
The researchers used the weighted mean to assess the level of physical discomfort of the sewing operator experienced. The formula for weighted mean was: