Holistic caring process is one of the core values of holistic nursing (Morgan & Yoder, 2012). According to Dossey, Keegan, and Co-Director International Nurse Coach Association (2012), holistic caring is the core element of nursing of future. The following paper will observe the selected core value of holistic caring process along with the rationale for choosing it, and the differences between the concepts of healing and curing based on the illustration from my practice.
The selected core value of holistic nursing is holistic caring process. The rationale for this choice is importance of care in nursing. From my experience, patients seek help and multi-dimensional care first of all when they come to a unit of medical care. Therefore, to satisfy the clients’ needs, holistic nurses should incorporate this core value into their practice.
To collect information on how different people view the core value of holistic nursing under consideration, I have interviewed three people: my cousin Sarah Abraham, my friend Osvaldo Alvarez who is also my colleague in a way since he is employed in nursing also and is studying to become a nurse practitioner, and my colleague Karina Garcia who works with me in home health agency as a pediatric nurse. The questions I asked the interviewees addressed their point of view regarding the importance of holistic caring process in nursing and health care in general. My cousin Sarah who is a person that has no connection with medicine and attends hospitals quite rarely replied that when she comes to her local care unit or any other hospital, her primary expectation is to acquire quality care and compassionate and respectful attitude. She thus views caring process as the main element of a nursing professional’s work. Sarah added that she sought to find a health care professional capable of providing excellent physical and emotional care, education on disease prevention, motivation, and consultation on health promotion. For this reason, Sarah believes that holistic caring process is the core value for a nurse.
Next, the results of my interview of a colleague from another health care institution Osvaldo Alvarez were similar. However, Osvaldo approaches the subject from his professional perspective and his experience at work. He said that in his work with the elderly patients, holistic caring process is the key aspect of the service provided. He also added that his clients expect that he will perform most effectively when it comes to caring process.
Interviewing my colleague Karina Garcia who works in the same unit with me, I had one more opportunity to make sure that caring process is definitely one of the most important elements of holistic nursing. She stated that curing a patient is much more than just healing one’s physical illnesses. It is rather the all-inclusive process that incorporates emotional support, motivation, compassion, ability to inspire positive change, and the skill of an educator and leader of health promotion. Karina added that caring process is also important for nurses themselves since it helps them find more joy and satisfaction in their work.
The core value of holistic caring directly refers to the concepts of healing and cure since holistic caring may result in healing patients when cure cannot take place. The concept of healing refers to a broader process than cure since it incorporates multiple aspects of an individual’s progress to becoming healthy including physical well-being, emotional well-being, healthy mind, healthy thinking, harmony with the inner and outer world, and quality of life promotion (Attard, Baldacchino, & Camilleri, 2014; Kelly, 2012). In contrast, the concept of cure refers to the positive result of medical treatment leading to the end of disease (Dossey & Keegan, 2016; Brooker & Waugh, 2013). Therefore, it can be stated that the concept of healing is different from the concept of cure based on the source of the power that made the patient healthy again. While cure implicates only medical measures, healing refers to any kind of positive influence that may result in the end of disease.
To illustrate the differences between the concepts of cure and healing, a case from my experience will be addressed. A lady was suffering from infertility for over four years, trying all available medical ways to improve the work of her endocrine system. The medical treatment did not demonstrate results. However, when she ended the final medical treatment period and was about to resort to radical measures, healing took place and she got pregnant. Asking the person what happened, she said that she entered a new era of harmonic relationships with her husband, and this feeling of happiness and contentment helped her.
In conclusion, it should be pointed out that the holistic caring process is the core element of contemporary nursing and nursing of future as shown in the interviews narrated in this project and scholarly sources. Holistic caring should become the central objective for all nurses because it provides the best customer outcomes and may result in healing where cure is impossible.
References
Attard, J., Baldacchino, D. R., & Camilleri, L. (2014). Nurses’ and midwives’ acquisition of competency in spiritual care: A focus on education. Nurse education today, 34(12), 1460-1466.
Brooker, C., & Waugh, A. (2013). Foundations of nursing practice: Fundamentals of holistic care. New York, NY: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Dossey, B. M., & Keegan, L. (2016). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice (7th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Dossey, B. M., Keegan, L., & Co-Director International Nurse Coach Association. (2012). Holistic nursing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Kelly, P. (2012). Nursing leadership & management (3rd ed.). Delmar, NY: Cengage Learning.
Morgan, S., & Yoder, L. H. (2012). A concept analysis of person-centered care. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 30(1), 6-15.