Reflection: Analyze

I do not have much personal experience

in end of life as far as family or friends.
My grand parents passed away while I
was younger, and I did not see them in
their poor state because my parents
preferred us to no see them that way. I
have personal experience working with
patients on hospice and comfort care. I
feel the family has a huge impact on the
patients dying process, they may be
unresponsive but sometimes you can tell
how the family and their presence eases
them. I do believe it is a useful theory
because it is centered around patient and
family to promote best comfort. The
benefit of a theory is it better develops a
care plan centered around the patient
and is more structured which helps
when discussing patient needs to other
disciplinaries. I do not understand how
nursing knowledge would inhibit
communication between members. It
would benefit most needs to be centered
around the patient, which better
knowledge provide better patient care.

Reflection: Revise
I do like Kolcabas Theory of
Comfort. I believe it hits on all the
important needs of the patient and
the family. There other theories for
nursing but none really focus on
the comfort of the patient. Some
may be about therapeutic
communication, which helps the
patient, but it does not promote
best comfort for which that is the
largest concern at the end of life for
patient and family. In the future I
plan to consider this theory and
how I can implement it in patient
care. I personally do not see a way
of improving this process, it is well
researched and appears to be an
effective theory in caring for
patients and family at the end of
life .

Kolcabas
Theory of
Comfort

References
Petiprin, A. (2015). Nursing Theory. Kolcbas Theory of Comfort. Retrieved from http://www.nursingtheory.org/theories-and-models/kolcaba-theory-of-comfort.php
Kolcaba, K. Y. & Vendlinski, S., (1997). Comfort care: a framework for hospice nursing. The American journal of hospice
& palliative care, 14(6), 271276.

Caring for end of life

By: Tyler Nickels

Skills
Understanding Kolkabas provides more quality care to patients. Involving the patients and family
with this is imperative. To better promote health, Kolkaba believes involvement of the family is
crucial. Family needs to be actively involved, with guidance from hospice team, to enhance the
comfort of the patient (Kolcaba, 1997, p. 272). Family presence to the patient is very important;
they know their family member more than anyone
else. Being at the patients side is very important for
the patient to make peace with them and their god to
help transcend any physical or mental pain.

Attitude

Knowledge
Kolkaba described 3 important
components to her theory; relief,
ease, and transcendence. A patient
may experience each of these as
methods of comfort. Relief would
be meeting specific needs of the
patient related to comfort. Ease will
often be related to pain, as their
pain would be eased with
medication. Transcendence is
described as a state of comfort in
which patients are able to rise
above their challenges (Petiprin,
2015). Understanding this theory
and utilizing it in caring for
patients will provide better care for
the patient and their family

Nurses need to involve the family in

every aspect of planning care. With
Kolkaba theory in place, nurses are
able to assess comfort of the patient
and family, and design interventions
from this. Using the three components
of relief, ease, and transcendence. They
are associated with physical,
psychospiritual, environmental, and
social. When the two categories are
associated the needs are identified,
interventions are designed, and the
interventions effectiveness is assessed
(Kolkaba, 1997, p. 272). Nurses involve
the family to best determine ways to
improve comfort and transcendence at
the end
of life

Reflection: Elaborate
This assignment was not extremely
difficult, it took some time to read
through the material and
understand the comfort theory. I
feel confident reading through the
material and understand the
concept of the theory. In the reading
it really focused on not just the
family but also the patient in the
care of comfort. The involvement of
family in planning care and
including them in comforting the
patient was very important.