![]() ![]() Furthermore, a clear conceptual definition of holistic care will provide a concensus on its meaning therby facilitating its application in nursing practice, research, education, and theory development. In addition, a comprehensive understanding of holistic care will facilitate professional autonomy and enable them to consider patients' needs in a more systematic and scientific way. Having a concreate definition of holistic care enables nurses to identify therapeutic potentials when caring for patients thereby increasing nurses' knowledge, helping to develop a framework for holistic nursing. In general, the literature suggests that the meaning of “holistic care” remains ambiguous and any in-depth studies toward a definition of it are rare. ![]() Most often, “holistic care” is viewed with disapproval and condemned as unspecialized, unscientific, wasteful, and time-consuming. Thus, the meaning of the concept of holistic care often remains unclear and ambiguous and usually incorrectly understood. However, this definition is not comprehensive, and research demonstrates that the concept of holistic care is frequently used by nurses in a variety of contexts without any clear knowledge of what is meant by it. ![]() In general, it describes approaches and interventions that are meant to satisfy a patient's physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs. Holistic care is a nebulous and subjective concept. The results of several studies show that many factors such as inadequate time, inappropriate professional relations, incomplete nursing reports, inadequate clinical supervision, unavailability of resources, poor management, insufficient knowledge, motivational factors, and nurses' misunderstanding of the concept of holistic care contribute to nurses' negligence of holistic care. Many aspects of patients' needs are forgotten, and patients' dignity is often neglected. ![]() In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and Iran, caring conditions are inappropriate. Using only the medical model is not only insufficient to restore health but also exposes patients to serious threats, prolongs hospitalization and increases treatment costs. This often leads them to neglect holistic care and to consider only one aspect of the patients' needs – the physical aspect. There is compelling evidence that most nurses who have been educated within a biomedical allopathic focus, are not familiar with the concept of holistic care – or at best, have a semi-scholarly understanding of it. Patients of all races and religions have the right to receive holistic care nevertheless, few patients are provided with it. A holistic paradigm has been present in the healthcare systems of many cultures, and it can be used in every area of nursing care, such as medical-surgical nursing, mental health nursing, obstetric nursing, pediatric nursing, and public health nursing. The philosophy of holistic care is based on unity and a humanistic view of the patient. Holistic care, by addressing patients' physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs, restores their balances and enables them to deal with their illnesses, consequently improving their lives.įlorence Nightingale was the first nurse to emphasize the significance of holistic care. It will also result in a better understanding of the effects of illnesses on patients' responses and their true needs.ĭuring an illness, complex psychological, social and cultural needs disturb a patient's balance, and adversely affect his/her ability to carry out everyday activities. Holistic care can contribute to patients' satisfaction with healthcare and help them to accept and assume self-responsibility. Holistic care provides an in-depth understanding of patients and their various needs for care and has important consequences in health-care systems and has been referred to as the heart of the science of nursing. Holistic care is a complex concept which defies a precise definition. ![]()
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