The Most Important Value of Holistic Nursing
In the framework of holistic nursing, healthcare professionals are supposed to ensure that the patient is treated as a whole. In other words, it focuses on the connections between mind, body, and spirit that are to be addressed when providing appropriate services. Such kind of nursing is based on a range of core values. According to them, nurses are to adhere to holistic philosophy and base their actions and decisions on the knowledge obtained due to the continuous educational process. Nursing should be maintained with the commitment to theory and based on the information received due to research. Its limitations should be set by ethical considerations. In addition to that, these values spread belief that nurses must engage in self-care. In this way, they maintain health promotion and improve knowledge. Professionals are also required to engage with clients because only in this way they can reach the best health outcomes and achieve desired goals. Finally, nurses need to ensure the development of an atmosphere of caring that allows to address the needs better (Dossey, Keegan, ‎& Barrere, 2015).
Personally, I believe that the most important value is holistic philosophy, theories, and ethics because it makes holistic care different from all other approaches. For example, a healthcare professional can develop a positive atmosphere in which patients receive treatment and feel comfortable without being aware of all holistic ideas. Still, it is impossible to imagine holistic nursing without knowledge and adherence to holistic philosophy, theories, and ethics. This very value ensures that nursing professionals act in the framework of holistic care when maintaining not only one part of their duties (for instance, patient care or communication) but all of them. A nurse cannot be called holistic if she/he does not know this philosophy, theories, and ethics and does not incorporate them into practice (Frish, 2007).
Interview regarding Core Values
In order to deepen the understanding of holistic nursing and find out how different people treat it, interviews with a friend, a family member, and a nurse were maintained. First of all, they received an explanation of the first core value that was selected as the main one. On the basis of this information, they explained whether they agree with such idea and also consider holistic philosophy, theories, and ethics to be the most critical aspects that should be incorporated into practice or not.
A friend who was interviewed claimed that he also believes the first core value of holistic nursing, which I selected as the main one, to be important. He said that theoretical knowledge is significant for any practice because it is the basis that can be used as a solid background for the development of skills.
A family member claimed that theoretical knowledge is vital for every nursing professional and it should be incorporated in his/her practice. The thing is that it ensures that the decisions these professional makes are based on the generally accepted ideas that are widely practiced and have already proved their usefulness.
A nurse who agreed to participate in the interview is my coworker. She is a holistic nurse for several years already, which means that she is well aware of this approach and its peculiarities. She stated that the knowledge of holistic philosophy, theories, and ethics helps her greatly in the framework of everyday practice. She believes that it affected and even formed her worldview, which also determines her actions and attitudes. The nurse claimed that this core value of holistic nursing allows to share the understanding of nurses’ expertise and those skills and capacities that are critical for healing.
Healing and Cure
As a rule, the representatives of the general public use the terms “healing” and “cure” trying to share one and the same meaning. Still, healthcare professionals need to distinguish these concepts because they are different. Curing presupposes a total restoration of health so that a person does not experience symptoms of a disease anymore and is not affected by it. It is a remedy that ensures that the patient does not have this disease at all. Healing, on the other hand, is a process that is targeted at curing. It removes symptoms so that a person feels better and can return to his/her previous life but does not mean that he/she is already healthy. Thinking about my clinical practice, I can recollect a situation in which there was no cure, but there was healing. It happened to a patient with diabetes. With the help of treatment, his condition was controlled, and he felt much better, still, the disease was not cured (Mooney, 2013).
In the interview, a patient told that she was cured of the chicken pox. The healing experience was rather long-lasting for this disease. A patient minimalized contact with other people and adhered to prescribed treatment for 12 days. The first week was the most critical, followed by blisters and pain. My family member had influenza. He had a terrible fever, headache, and sore throat for the first 3 days but then felt a little bit better. Fatigue, cough lasted for 2 weeks, while fever reduced in 7 days. A nurse I know caught a cold recently. She had a sore throat for 2 days and runny nose for 5 days. She did not have any fever but was tired almost during the whole week.
References
Dossey, B., Keegan, ‎L., & Barrere, C. (2015). Holistic nursing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Frish, N. (2007). Holistic nursing. Hamilton, Canada: Saunders.
Mooney, M. (2013). What’s the difference between healing and curing? Web.