Comfort Theory and Its Application to Oncology Nursing
Components of the Theory
Major Concepts
Developed by Katherine Kolcaba, The Comfort Theory uses a holistic approach to patient care. Kolcaba ‘s theory of comfort (2003) is described as the immediate experience of being strengthened as a result of having needs of relief, ease, and transcendence met in the context of physical, pyschospiritual, social, and environmental experiences. The Comfort Theory is a middle range nursing theory developed from the work of earlier nursing theorist including Orlando (1961), Henderson (1966), Paterson & Zderad (1988). The major concepts of Kolcaba’s theory of comfort are as follows: (1) Health Care Needs: health care needs are needs for comfort arising from stressful health care situations that cannot be met by recipients’ traditional support systems. (2) Comfort Interventions: comfort interventions are nursing actions designed to address specific comfort needs of recipient, including physiological, social, cultural, financial, psychological, spiritual, environmental, and physical interventions. (3) Intervening Variables: Intervening variables are interacting forces that influence recipients’ perceptions of total comfort. (4) Comfort: comfort is the state experienced by recipients of comfort interventions. (5) Health-Seeking Behaviors: A broad category of outcomes related to the pursuit of health as defined by recipient (s) in consultation with the nurse Health Seeking Behaviors (HSBs) was synthesized by Schlotfeldt (1975) and proposed to be internal, external, or a peaceful death. (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 709).
Assumptions
It seems that theories make assumptions that seem to be based on philosophical beliefs about environment, heal...
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...er undergoing radiation therapy. Oncology Nursing Forum, 26(1), 67-72.
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The development of nursing theories has provided a perspective in which one can define the purpose of nursing, when nursing is required, and establish the parameters and goals of therapeutic nursing activities (Ahmed,2001). A nursing theory is defined "as concepts, definitions, relationships, and assumptions derived from nursing models or from other disciplines and project a purposive, systematic view of phenomena by designing specific inter-relationships among concepts for the purposes of describing, explaining and predicting the phenomena of nursing” (Boxer & Jones, 2010). In addition, nursing theories provide frameworks through which nurses can examine various situations. As nurses encounter new situations, these frameworks provide a structure for organization, analysis, decision making and communication (Ahmed, 2001). The following paper will discuss the middle range nursing theory of Family Stress and Adaptation by Geri LoBiondo-Wood, and how it relates to patient care and guides nursing practice.
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To make good nursing decisions, nurses require an internal roadmap with knowledge of nursing theories. Nursing theories, models, and frameworks play a significant role in nursing, and they are created to focus on meeting the client’s needs for nursing care. According to McEwen and Wills (2014), conceptual models and theories could create mechanisms, guide nurses to communicate better, and provide a “systematic means of collecting data to describe, explain, and predict” about nursing and its practice (p. 25). Most of the theories have some common concepts; others may differ from one theory to other. This paper will evaluate two nursing theorists’ main theories include Sister Callista Roy’s
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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.
Taylor, C., Lillis, C., LeMone, P., Lynn, P. (2011). Fundamentals of nursing: The art and science of nursing care (7th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams &