Holistic Nursing: Integrating Mind, Body, Emotions, & Environment - Essay Sample

Introduction

Holistic nursing practice focuses on restoring the health condition of a person to the desirable state. The practice of holistic nursing requires nurses to integrate mind, spirit body, emotions, environment and social-cultural approaches in their execution. These are the prerequisites for restoring a patient to a whole. Its inception dates back in 1980 when a holistic nurse association in America saw the need for embracing holism in the healthcare industry (Mariano, 2016). This nursing association emphasized on nurses' education and the need to practice holistic nursing. The main goal of Holistic nursing is to prevent and reduce patients suffering, thus elevating their health conditions. However, this has not always been the case as different situations prevent nurses from achieving this. In our reading, we will, therefore, discuss holistic nursing in detail by integrating nurses' views on the practice and the different challenges that are associated with the practice.

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Standards of Practice

Holistic nursing practice is a special area of nursing and this call for the establishment of clear guidelines which govern the performance of holistic nursing. The American Holistic Nursing Association contributed largely to the setting of standards of practice. This set of conduct defines holistic nursing, its historical culture, the scope of holistic nursing, the professional requirements and performance level of all the holistic nurses. The standards of practice influenced nurses' understanding of values, knowledge, philosophy and the necessary skills required in holistic nursing practice. According to World Health Organization, the cooperation of American Nursing Association (ANA) and the American Holistic Nursing Association played an important role in defining the scope of standards of practice and showing its relationship with Complimentary Alternative Modalities (CAM) (Dossey, & Keegan, 2017).

Holistic Nursing

Holistic nursing differs from the ordinary nursing in the sense that the former ensures comfort and well-being of people by protecting and preventing them from illnesses as well as reducing suffering on patients and supporting them to find peace during the time of illness. Holistic nursing embraces holism, and this entails treating a patient as a whole by taking into account the external and internal factors that may face the patient rather than focusing only on the symptoms. This is done by the belief that a human body is made up of different parts and if one part is affected, then there is a likely hood that the other body parts won't function properly. This is because imbalances between spiritual, physical and emotional health in patients affect their overall health negatively. According to the American Nursing Association, Holistic nursing aims at integrating all forms of healing steaming from the normal medication to alternative (therapies) medication when treating patients (Erickson, 2015).

Holistic nurses recognize and examine the emotional and mental well-being of patients before carrying out the treatment. They carry out diagnosis, treatment and spend most of their time with the patients without considering them as burdens. Holistic nurses recognize the patient's role during treatment and encourage them to administer self-care, and these are the basis of holistic care. By questioning patients' opinions on health while at the same time initiating treatment process, they are thereby perceived as patient's partners in the process of healing since they offer them guidance. This holistic practice is influenced by the physiological idea that life is a collection of many connected elements and one aspect can influence other aspects thereby interfering with the overall health condition of a person. For holism to be effective holistic nurses integrate both healing and curing and this helps a patient recover as a whole since the two offer the best outcome. Holistic nursing embraces various core values which makes it different from normal nursing.

These holistic nursing core values include:

• Philosophy, ethics, and theories
• Communication
• Nurse self-care
• Spirituality and Healing

Holistic Communication

It is the factual sharing of information in holistic nursing. This art of sharing involves appreciating the patient in a caring, non-judgmental, compassionate and a sincere way. This kind of communication is portrayed by the application of non-verbal skills of communication as nurses maintain eye contact and use facial expressions when talking to the patient. The nurse's willingness to listen to the patients' opinions makes the patient portray the nurse as a caring person (Mariano, 2016). Non-verbal communication skills form the basis of holistic communication. The aim of this is to make the patient feel more valued by incorporating him/her in the treatment process as this method makes sure that patient opinions are heard and clearly understood.

Holistic Nurse Self-Care

Holistic nursing practice is encompassed by self-care. Holistic nurses clearly understand that it is difficult to administer healing unless the individual nurses are undergoing the process of healing. According to World Health Organization (WHO), self -care entails the activities undertaken by families, individuals and the society in general top enhance body by restoring health and preventing the spread of diseases (Erickson, 2015). Professional experience, skills, and knowledge contribute significantly to administering self-care activities. Professionals can help people in undertaking these activities or they can either undertake them separately on their behalf. Holistic nurses focus on the allocation of necessary resources which aid on health improvement for themselves. By undertaking activities such as physical exercises and self-assessment together with good nutrition, they improve their self-healing and self-care. It should be noted that self -healing and self-care stability and peace to individuals and that is why they encourage patients to emulate them.

Holistic Nursing Philosophy

This is a philosophy that promotes spirituality in collaboration with healing and holism. As stated earlier, holistic nurses incorporate spiritual, cultural, environmental, body and mental aspects of a patient in treatment to make sure that their health condition is restored as a whole. This is because illnesses hurt the bio-psycho-social-spiritual model and this influences the healing process and the method of treatment. This philosophy tries to allude that the components of the human body are interdependent and there is something more than just illnesses and diseases (Dossey, & Keegan, 2017). Showing great care to a patient needs the incorporation of emotions, body, soul and the mental aspects of the patient. According to a previous study, holism and balanced quality life are realized when a whole patients self-care are exhibited.

Spirituality and Healing

Surveys show that 93% of people value being superior beings. However, during tough times such as at times of illnesses, patients may find it difficult to assess what brings meaning to their lives as they need some comfort and this is where spiritual superiority comes into play. Holistic nursing, therefore, has an obligation of enhancing spiritual care because the nurses clearly understand its importance in healing. Spiritual care is very effective in healing, and holistic nurses often undertake this as a last resort at times when patients are hampered by difficult emotional circumstances as they are receiving treatment (Mariano, 2016). Spirituality is a unique aspect of every person, and it influences individual wholeness and healing. This is attributed to the fact that patients experience inner peace and few body pains when spiritual care is given.

Conclusion

In conclusion, holistic nursing involves many things from feelings, knowledge, and competence to rigorous training. Holistic nursing does not isolate its treatment to some parts. Instead, it focuses on the whole restoration of a patient's health, and this poses a challenge to normal nursing which focuses solely on the illness instead of the person as a whole. Body elements affect each other in different ways, and therefore a patient's health is as a result of how the balance of these elements is managed. Holistic nursing incorporates modern treatment methods together with alternative methods of treatment of illnesses. However, it's good to give the holistic nurses proper training on how to engage the patients since every engagement with a patient is unique.

References

Dossey, B. M., & Keegan, L. (2017). Holistic nursing: A handbook for practice. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Erickson, H. L. (2015). Philosophy and theory of holism. Nursing Clinics of North America, 42(2), 139-163.Mariano, C. (2016). Overview of holistic nursing. Imprint, 52(2), 48-50.