Theory of Comfort in Nursing Practice

Theory of Comfort in Nursing Practice
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Theory of Comfort in Nursing Practice
The comfort theory is a mid-range nursing theory relevant to different nursing practice areas. Nurses advocate for comfort while providing care to patients. This paper analyzes the theory of comfort and its significance in the intensive care Unit (ICU).
Katherine Kolcaba developed the theory of comfort while working in an Alzheimer's unit as a nurse. She realized that emotional and physical changes in the inmates caused fights, agitations, and violence, but providing comfort measures enhanced satisfaction, cooperation, and socialization (Castro et al., 2021). Kolcaba defined comfort as a strengthened experience of satisfying the human needs for transcendence, relief, and ease, fulfilled in environmental, sociocultural, physical, and psycho-spiritual contexts (Castro et al., 2021). Transcendence entails the patient's capacity to rise beyond the pain; relief is fulfilling the patient's needs, while ease is when the patient is calm and contented. Nurses can apply the comfort theory in various scopes, including the pediatric, geriatric, ICU, maternity, oncology, and surgical unit. The theory has logical adequacy since it logically presents its statements and concepts as guidance in the nursing practice. For instance, Castro et al. (2021) highlighted that comfort measures in a patient experiencing pain enhance relief, ease, and transcendence in their physical body, psycho-spiritual aspects like self-esteem, environment, and social context like their interpersonal relationships.
The theory of comfort is practical, simple, and easy to use in various situations in nursing practice to solve the patient's basic needs. Nurses can easily apply the theory to improve patients' health outcomes while enhancing comfort. They apply varying interventions from the theory, including technical interventions like analgesia, coaching, guided imagery, and a peaceful environment to prevent complications and maintain physiological functions (Castro et al., 2021). Nurses can make generalizations from the comfort theory to a large extent. They can apply the theory to varying populations, situations, and...