Katherine kolcaba theory of comfort

In Kolcaba’s theory, the three main types of comfort are a relief, ease, and transcendence. Moreover, the four contexts are physical, psychospiritual, environmental, and sociocultural (Smith and Parker, 383). Purpose The main purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the importance of adopting and completely achieving Katherine Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort. Doing so will allow nurses to reach fully patient-centered care. The theory of comfort has been proven to be very effective. The taxonomic structure can be used to see if the comfort levels are being met and also to determine which needs are not being met so that the nurse can alter than clients plan to target their specific needs of comfort. The main definitions Kathern Kolcaba uses are found in the conceptual framework.

When the health care needs of the patient and family, comforting intervention, intervening variables, enhanced comfort, health-seeking behaviors, (internal behaviors, peaceful death, external behaviors) institutional integrity, best practices, best policies, combine they create a harmony for each patient allowing them to successfully reach the goal of comfort. When patients reach a high enough level of comfort they can feel the empowerment of the treatment they are receiving thus having a positive effect on recovery, and the patient is more likely to continue to engage in more positive health behaviors. Katherine noted some major points by Nightingale, on the importance of assessing the patient.  Connecting the family with spiritual counseling, making arrangements to honor the patient's last wishes, and honoring the families cultural customs related to postmortem care are examples of Kolcaba’s Comfort Food for the Soul measures.

These moments when the nurse goes out of her way to create to comfort the patient or family, are the ones that leave lasting impressions on everyone involved.  These caring moments are the essence of nursing but often are left undocumented. Although the Comfort theory is especially relevant to hospice care, it can also be useful in other nursing specialties, particularly nursing homes or assisted living facilities. The prolonged interaction between a resident of a nursing home and the staff taking care of them allows for a deeper and richer rapport. According to Kolcaba, “seeking a peaceful death can also be a Health seeking behavior”. (Parker and Smith 384) This idea that a peaceful and dignified death can also be a comfort intervention was explored in Konietzny and Anderson’s study by asking each patient what comfort meant to them and how they wanted to lead the rest of their lives.

In another notable study, Kolcaba’s comfort theory was applied to long-term care facilities. In this 2016 study Tia Fenstermaker, Amanda McKendree, and Stephanie Swope observed how the comforting measure of an emotional support animal could decrease signs of depression and in turn lower heart rate and blood pressure in elderly patients. This study chose to focus on two forms of comfort defined by Kolcaba: relief and ease. In such situations, the patient gets encouraged to overcome their problems. Although the theory is arguably only applicable to hospice care, it can be useful in other specialties, especially nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The application proves viable since the residents of these nursing homes are able to develop longstanding relationships with the nurses who work at these nursing homes and assisted living facilities.