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Comfort Theory 101
Comfort Theory 101
Comfort Theory 101
Katharine Kolcaba
Katharine Kolcaba 1
Common Definitions: Comfort (Webster)
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Relief Relief
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Ease
I feel totally
peaceful.
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Transcendence
I did it!
(with the
help of my
coach…)
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Four recurring themes (contexts):
Physical Comfort
◆ Homeostasis, pain
relief, symptom
management, diagnostic
related problems,
◆ Chronic health issues
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Psychospiritual
Comfort
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◆ Sociocultural Comfort (approach
and attitudes of staff, family,
friends
Financial situation, social support, traditions,
language,
information wanted, etc.
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Environmental Comfort
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Definition of Holistic Comfort
Physical pain
Psycho-
Spiritual anxiety
Socio-
Cultural
Environ
-mental
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(Kolcaba, 2003)
Technical definition of Comfort (cont)
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This is Comfort Theory:
• Nurses assess unmet comfort needs of patients and/or
families
• Nurses design comforting interventions to enhance comfort
of patients and/or families
• If intervention is effective, comfort is enhanced
• Enhanced comfort is positively related to engagement in
HSBs
– Comfort is strengthening
• When patients (and families) engage in HSBs, institutions
have better outcomes
– Patient satisfaction, nurse retention, costs down
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Conceptual Framework for Comfort Theory
Best
Practices
Best
Policies
© Kolcaba (2007)
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Practical Application (Nursing Process)
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Relationship of comfort (holistic
outcome) to health seeking behaviors
(HSBs)
• Goals of patient, family, with nurse
External HSBs: e.g. functional status, rehab
progress
Internal HSBs: e.g. healing, t-cell counts, etc.
Peaceful death: perfect for hospice and palliative
care
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Institutional outcomes:
• How did the intervention(s) affect the institution?
– Patient satisfaction, cost/benefit analysis, rankings,
reputation, morbidity and mortality stats, staff retention
and attendance, etc.
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• Kolcaba, K. (2003).
Comfort Theory and
Practice. Springer.
• Available at
Amazon.com
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