Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Alternative Health Practices
Comfort Interventions Used in Nursing Practice
Amy J. McClune, PhD, RN, BC, Department of Nursing, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Edinboro, PA, USA
Learning Objective #1: Relate to the comfort interventions identified by nurses in this study.
Learning Objective #2: Identify comfort interventions used in his/her own practice.
The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to discover comfort interventions routinely used by professional nurses in everyday practice.  Content analysis was performed to identify themes and patterns. 

Using Kolcaba's (1991, 1992, 1994, 1995, 2001) comfort framework, comfort interventions were identified within the four contexts of comfort:  physical, sociocultural, psychospiritual, and environmental.  This exploration of nursing practice revealed how nurses provide comfort to client's on a daily basis.

Eighteen nurses from various clinical backgrounds and levels of experience were asked to relate examples of interventions they utilized in each of the four contexts of comfort.  Interveiws were audio-taped and transcribed data were analyzed to identify major themes. 

Physical comfort was provided through touch, temperature, and repositioning as well as management of pain medications.  Sociocultural comfort was provided using communication and respect. Psychospiritual comfort was provided through reinforcement, presence, and spiritual/religious interventions. Environmental comfort was provided by altering light, sound, smell, use of distraction, and minimalization of the use of medical devices.  A number of comfort interventions such as presence, warmth, touch were described in more than one comfort context.

The results of this investigation indicate the use of consistent comfort interventions by nurses in various clinical settings.  It also indicated the interconnectedness of the contexts of  comfort.  This was illustrated well by one interviewee, “…actually I think all are combined together…you know that’s what makes up the whole component of a complete person and to compartmentalize them probably isn’t doing justice to the patient…”

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