Georgia A. Ball
Great Falls College: Montana State University
Holistic Nursing Care Approach in Patient Care
Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing in the 1850’s, recognized the importance of environment, touch, scents, music and silent reflection in holistic care. Holistic care focuses not only on treating the illness or disorder of the individual but also treating the individual’s sociological, psychological, mental views and individual needs (Papathanasiou, I. et al., 2013). Holistic care is centered on the ideal that each patient should be treated individually and with a care plan that is specific to their mind, body and soul. This type of care is commonly expressed through the accommodations of bio-ethics, grief/loss, spiritual and cultural diversity, needs that are specific to each individual patient. The accommodations of …show more content…
Therefore, it is important to have understanding and compassion when helping people who are experiencing loss. Per Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s stages of grief model in Anderson’s Caring for Older Adults Holistically textbook, there are five stages to grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Individuals can go through all the stages or can bounce around and back again from each stage. Denial is commonly referred as an individuals’ subconscious trying to protect itself from the truth of the situation. Anger, on the other hand, is thought to be the individuals subconscious trying to strengthen enough to face the situation. Bargaining is the subconscious turning to a higher power to trade something of value to help the loved one who has passed or in the process of passing. Depression is the subconscious accepting that nothing can be done but still cannot accept the loss. Acceptance is the subconscious fully accepting the situation and having a sense of relief, the individual can start living again (p.