Katherine Kolcaba's Comfort Theory
Katherine Kolcaba’s Comfort Theory
Annette Hall
St Joseph’s College of Maine
Abstract
Katherine Kolcaba’s Comfort Theory fits best with my philosophy of nursing and my current work environment. As a hospice nurse comfort is the top priority. The goal of hospice care is to provide comfort and dignity at the end of life. The technical term for comfort for health care is the immediate state of being strengthened by having the needs for relief, ease, and transcendence addressed in the four context of holistic human experience: physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environment. The change goal would be to implement Kolcaba’s taxonomic structure of comfort as a way for the hospice unit staff to measure comfort.
Katherine Kolcaba’s Comfort Theory
Kolcaba was born as Katherine Arnold on December 8th, in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her diploma in nursing from St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1965. She graduated from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University in 1987. She graduated with a PhD in nursing and received a certificate of authority clinical nursing specialist in 1997. She specialized in Gerontology, End of Life and Long Term Care Interventions, Comfort Studies, Instrument Development, Nursing Theory, and Nursing Research. She is currently and associate professor of nursing at the University of Akron College of Nursing. She published Comfort Theory and Practice: a Vision for Holistic Health Care and Research (Nursing Theories, 2011).
Description
Comfort Theory is a middle range theory for health practice, education, and research. Comfort is viewed as an outcome of care that can promote or facilitate health-seeking behaviors. Increasing comfort can result in having negative tensions reduced and positive tensions engaged. Kolcaba (as cited in McEwin & Wills, 2011) defined comfort within nursing practice as “the satisfaction of the basic human needs for relief, ease, or transcendence arising from health care
Annette Hall
St Joseph’s College of Maine
Abstract
Katherine Kolcaba’s Comfort Theory fits best with my philosophy of nursing and my current work environment. As a hospice nurse comfort is the top priority. The goal of hospice care is to provide comfort and dignity at the end of life. The technical term for comfort for health care is the immediate state of being strengthened by having the needs for relief, ease, and transcendence addressed in the four context of holistic human experience: physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environment. The change goal would be to implement Kolcaba’s taxonomic structure of comfort as a way for the hospice unit staff to measure comfort.
Katherine Kolcaba’s Comfort Theory
Kolcaba was born as Katherine Arnold on December 8th, in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her diploma in nursing from St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1965. She graduated from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University in 1987. She graduated with a PhD in nursing and received a certificate of authority clinical nursing specialist in 1997. She specialized in Gerontology, End of Life and Long Term Care Interventions, Comfort Studies, Instrument Development, Nursing Theory, and Nursing Research. She is currently and associate professor of nursing at the University of Akron College of Nursing. She published Comfort Theory and Practice: a Vision for Holistic Health Care and Research (Nursing Theories, 2011).
Description
Comfort Theory is a middle range theory for health practice, education, and research. Comfort is viewed as an outcome of care that can promote or facilitate health-seeking behaviors. Increasing comfort can result in having negative tensions reduced and positive tensions engaged. Kolcaba (as cited in McEwin & Wills, 2011) defined comfort within nursing practice as “the satisfaction of the basic human needs for relief, ease, or transcendence arising from health care
References: Vendlinski, S., & Kolcaba, K.Y. (1997). Comfort care: A framework for hospice nursing. The American Journal of Hospice & Palliative Care, 14, 271-276.