Holistic nursing practice
-
Holistic nursing practice · Apr 1998
Toward a holistic view of genetic technology as a way of knowing.
Technology changes the face of science and, ultimately, nature. How do we as nurses come to know technology? Nurses' ways of knowing, as described by Carper, help nurses better understand technology as a way of knowing; that is, using empirical, ethical, personal, and esthetic ways of knowing provides a means to incorporate technology into holistic nursing practice. Knowledge of technology also requires considering clients' and families' multiple facets of knowing. The article summarizes the nature of technology, nurses' ways of knowing in the context of genetic technology, and the rationale for understanding clients' and families' ways of knowing.
-
Holistic nursing practice · Oct 1997
Therapeutic touch, dialogue, and women's experiences in breast cancer surgery.
The article describes the development of a nursing intervention based on the science of unitary human beings that has the potential to help women have more positive experiences during the time of breast cancer surgery. The intervention, therapeutic touch and dialogue, is expected to result in decreased state anxiety and postoperative pain and a more positive affect balance. It is recommended that nurses maintain objective anecdotal records of their experiences with therapeutic touch and dialogue and that future research include randomized controlled clinical trials as well as studies to explore therapeutic touch's mechanism of action.
-
Holistic nursing practice · Oct 1996
ReviewInformation system support of changes in health care and nursing practice.
The practice of nursing is changing in response to changes in health care. An effective information system can support nursing's need to streamline the process of documentation, move to standards-based practice, access standards and other reference material, and access data and information to make clinical and management decisions. Nurses will increasingly rely on information systems to provide them with the critical data and information they need to make decisions about patient care, management of the care team, efficient resource utilization, and best practice standards.
-
Holistic nursing practice · Jul 1996
From the wings of night: dream work with people who have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.
Nurses who work with seriously ill and dying patients are engaged in helping them live fully until they die. Most theories of death and dying deal with conscious activities only. Yet many people find relief form the fear and loneliness of life-threatening illness if given the opportunity to express their totality, meaning their unconscious as well as conscious processes. ⋯ Attending to the unconscious through dream work can allow inner healing to occur, which can support that person as he or she moves into the unknown. The article describes the AIDS Dreamwork Project, the goals of which are to understand patients better and to help them better understand themselves, to help them live and die more consciously, and to discern patterns in their dreams that may be unique to people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Six themes have been identified in the dreams collected so far: wake-up dreams; reassurance dreams; dreams of opposition, separation, or coming together; transition dreams; transformation dreams; and spiritual or archetypal dreams.
-
Holistic nursing practice · Jan 1995
Identifying and responding to the needs of refugees: a global nursing concern.
Worldwide catastrophic events such as civil war have forced 1 in every 130 people in the world to flee her or his home and become a refugee or displaced person. The article draws upon contemporary refugee experiences from Afghanistan, the Sudan, and the former Yugoslavia to introduce the role of nursing during the refugee journey from flight to asylum seeking. It is hoped that the article will provide nurses with a beginning awareness of the nurse's role in the care and comfort of refugees and displaced people. Central to this role is the gathering of humanitarian, sociocultural, and personal information to enable extensive networking and relationship building with refugees for ongoing empowerment and increased problem-solving capabilities.