Holistic Care: Comprehensive Patient Care for Physical, Emotional, and Developmental Needs - Essay Sample

Introduction

Holistic health care is acknowledged as comprehensive patient care that takes into account a patient's physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and economic needs. Holistic care first establishes the patient's response to the diagnosed condition and the effects it has on their respective ability to meet their personal cared needs (Valizadeh et al., 2017). Usually, while different conditions have different effects on the patient's self-care ability, individuals with the intellectual and developmental disorder are primarily affected, considering their regular experience of clinical comorbidities, an aspect that requires advanced care that covers a wide range of discipline (Ervin et al., 2016). Further, individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities need long term services and support, which in this case should be found and structured on a natural support system to address their physical, emotional, and social needs. In other terms, holistic care is multidisciplinary care that offers integrated and coordinated kind of patient care, which facilitates and promotes improved patient satisfaction through improved health outcomes at a reduced health care cost.

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Holistic nursing is considered as one of the best nursing philosophies because of its comprehensive nature and commitment to heal and care for the entire person and not just the ailing body. The importance of the comprehensiveness nature of holistic nursing was first demonstrated by Florence Nightingale, a holistic nurse during the Crimean War, who insisted that a patient's condition and recovery process are connected to their environment (Carson-Newsman, 2018). Nightingale emphasized that patients with compromised social, economic, and spiritual backgrounds are vulnerable to conditions, and most, if not all, cannot effectively complement their personal care. As such, Nightingale committed to helping those who could not take care of themselves while offering them customized patient care that matched their social, emotional, and spiritual affiliation.

Holistic care is, therefore, important chiefly because it focuses on all the aspects that could directly or indirectly be affected by the ailing body, mind, and soul. Also, holistic care empowers the ailing individual and helps them see themselves as persons that deserve dignity even in their toughest times (PN, n.d). During the treatment process and the commitment demonstrated by a holistic nurse, patients are educated about the importance of self-care and ways to facilitate it during the treatment and recovery processes.

In addition, holistic care offers a holistic nurse chance to interact with the patient while identifying their underlying factors and particularly those that could potentially derail the treatment and recovery process (PN, n.d). For instance, a holistic nurse can ask the patient how to reduce their anxiety while using non-pharmacological methods to control their pain during and after the treatment process. Ultimately, holistic nursing is essential, considering its nature to encourage patients with alternative therapeutic modalities, which demonstrating their effectiveness in the treatment process (PN, n.d). Overall, while holistic care is time-consuming and might at times be overwhelmed by the increased patients' number, it remains as a central mode of care that nurses should embrace and incorporate in their day to day patient care.

The functionality of holistic care is primarily structured and integrated into values such as integrity, compassion, honesty, and kindness. The functionality of holistic care matches Jean Watson's theory of patient care in the sense that both advocate for patient satisfaction through improved quality of nursing. Watson's caring theory also relates to holistic care since, just like holistic care, Watson's theory of human care emphasizes the need to not only care for the patient but also care about them. In other terms, the theory necessitates the need to consider additional aspects that could directly or indirectly affect or derail the primary concept of nursing, caring.

Concisely, Watson's theory of human care states that humans cannot be treated as an object and that they are part of their environmental setup, which in this case is identified as beautiful, calm, and peaceful (Pajnkihar et al., 2017). Watson, therefore, recommends that prior to the initialization of the treatment process, a holistic nurse should establish competitive ways of interacting with the patient to adequately care for and about them, and more importantly, establish other factors that could affect their treatment process. As such, Watson claims that a holistic nurse should be artistic and scientific in order to offer patient care effectively and in a manner that facilitates the attainment of patient satisfaction.

Essentially, Watson's theory of human care insists that caring is the central aspect that ideally facilitates the nursing process, considering its influence on the preservation of a patient's dignity, protection, and enhancement of their personal care during and after the treatment process (Pajnkihar et al., 2017). Also, Watson's theory of human care insisted on the importance of personal values such as kindness, respect, and trust in enhancing the interpersonal relationships between the patient and the holistic nurse. The interpersonal values are critical since they help in supporting and enhancing the actual nursing practice.

Watson's theory of human care is important in holistic nursing since it promotes and sustains the faith of both the patient and the medic. In addition, the actualization of the theory in ideal nursing practice and setting aids a holistic nurse in understanding the patients in a detailed manner, thus understanding their subjectiveness to their inner world (WCSI, 2020). In other terms, the application of Watson's theory of human care facilitates the medics understanding of the patients' history and social, economic, and emotional affiliations that could directly or indirectly affect the treatment process.

The actualization and application of Watson's are also important primarily because it helps in establishing and nurturing a competent, trustful, and caring relationship that inspires both the practitioner and the patient. Also, based on the patient's social, economic, emotional, and spiritual affiliations, a holistic nurse identifies the appropriate treatment course, including non-pharmacological care that aids in calming the patient and controlling pain, if any (Ozan et al., 2015). More importantly, the Watson's theory of human care advocates for the co-creation of a conducive nursing environment that not only facilitates the diagnosis and healing of the physical body but also a patient's reconnection with their spirituality, an aspect that demonstrates the human dignity despite the existing social, economic, and spiritual difference (RCH, n.d). Overall, Watson's theory of human care expresses the need to care for and about a patient with utmost respect, trust, and dignity while addressing the patient's needs upon a thorough understanding of their respective orientation.

While Watson's theory of human care seeks to find balance and harmony between health practices and a patient's illness experience, there is a situation that does not fit or complement the basic stipulations of the theory (RCH, n.d). Normally, the theory requires that there is a balance between the facilities' equipment, staff, and patient. However, the inadequacy of one of the outlined aspects leads to an imbalance that significantly derails the actualization and application of Watson's theory of human care (Suliman et al., 2009). Patient load with minimal number of nurses is one of the situations that cannot effectively apply Watson's theory of human care. When the number of patients increases, it overwhelms the nurse-patient ratio, an aspect that stresses the system, thus making it quite challenging to actualize the basic stipulation s of the theory.

Particularly, the stress-induced in the system results from the fact that patient care is systematically conducted and spread over a considerable period of time. Therefore, an increased patient load implies that there is a time constraint that is placed explicitly on nurses since they need to cater to the diverse needs of the overwhelming patient's pool (Suliman et al., 2009). In such a moment, nurses can only treat the physical body or rather the ailing condition and move on to the next patient. Other aspects that are directly tailored to the patient's environment, including their social, emotional, and spiritual affiliations, are disregarded chiefly because identification of such requires more time, which might have dire consequences to the other patients.

Although the delivery of nursing practices is compromised when there is an overwhelming patient load, nurses should commit to ensuring that the patient's conditions are addressed with utmost professionalism to realize or positively influence the patient satisfaction rate. The patient satisfaction rate can also be influenced through the creation of a follow-up program where nurses could gradually initiate a personal touch with the patient to understand their environmental orientation, which, as indicated in the theory directly or indirectly influences their respective treatment and recovery process.

Holistic patient care is an important aspect of the nursing practice since it aids in the development of a suitable patient's diagnosis, treatment, and recovery process that not only treats and considers the ailing body but also seeks to nourish the patient's spirituality. In other terms, a holistic nurse initiates comprehensive interpersonal relationship with the patient to understand their condition and their orientation to their respective environment. Holistic care works hand in hand with the Watson's theory of human care, considering their attention to personal values such as kindness, love, trust, respect, and dignity of not only the patient but also of the holistic nurse. Therefore, the holistic philosophy and the nursing theory should be incorporated in the nursing practices to facilitate patient care and ultimately contribute to patient satisfaction.

References

Carson-Newman. (2018). The Importance of Holistic Nursing Care. Onlinenursing.cn.edu. Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://onlinenursing.cn.edu/news/importance-holistic-nursing-care.

Ervin, D., Merrick, J., & Kandel, I. (2016). Concepts of Holistic Care. link.springer.com. Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-18096-0_148#citeas.

Ozan, Y., Okumus, H., & Lash, A. (2015). Implementation of Watson's Theory of Human Caring: A Case Study [Ebook]. Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://www.internationaljournalofcaringsciences.org/docs/4-Lash%20-%20Original.pdf.

Pajnkihar, M., Stiglic, G., & Vrbnjak, D. (2017). The concept of Watson's carative factors in nursing and their (dis)harmony with patient satisfaction. Peerj, 5, e2940. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2940

PN. The Importance of Holistic Nursing Care: How to Completely Care for your Patients | PracticalNursing.org. Practicalnursing.org. Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://www.practicalnursing.org/importance-holistic-nursing-care-how-completely-care-patients.

RCH. Jean Watson's Theory of Human Caring | Hospital in Redlands, CA. Redlands Community Hospital. Retrieved 2 April 2020, from https://www.redlandshospital.org/nursing-excellence/jean-watsons-theory-of-human-caring/.

Suliman, W., Welmann, E., Omer, T., & Thomas, L. (2009). Applying Watson's Nursing Theory to Assess Patient Perceptions of Being Cared for in a Multicultural Environment. Jour...