Application

Nursing Practice

Application of Katharine Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort in the Clinical Setting:

·         Assess the patient’s holistic comfort needs.  Include etiology, precipitating contributory factors, patient’s attitude and perceptions.

·         Design comfort measures to address those needs.

Ways to Provide Physical Comfort:

Give medications (e.g., antianxiety, analgesics) as ordered.

Repositioning

Backrubs

Use of heat or cold

Therapeutic touch

Ways to Provide Sociocultural Comfort:

Acknowledge need for human interaction.

Promote socialization by providing time and space to be with significant others.

Involve family and significant others in the plan of care

Ways to Provide Psychospiritual Comfort:

Establish a therapeutic relationship, conveying empathy and unconditional positive regard.

Be available to client for listening and talking.

Encourage client to acknowledge and to express feelings.

Include client in planning of care.

Provide privacy.

Call the patient by his name.

Respect spiritual beliefs.

Promote expression of spirituality by giving the patient time and space to do so.

Environmental Comfort:

Soft lighting

Calm/quiet environment

Soft music

Regulate temperature

·         Reasssess comfort levels of the patient and modify care as needed.


Research

           Kolcaba's program of research on comfort care is explicitly congruent with Nightingale's view of the environment. Specially, the manipulation of environment to enhance patient health, as described by Nightingale, is the basis for studies using Kolcaba's comfort theory to examine patient outcomes. This line of research is expected to prosper over the next period of time. 

INSTRUMENTS TO MEASURE COMFORT

Comfort Behaviors Checklist

General Comfort Questionnaire

More of Kolcaba's Comfort Questionnaires