Holistic Nursing

The study unit Spirituality for Health Carers was part of the BSc(Hons) nursing/midwifery programme which aimed at providing an innovative clinical placement for students. This placement promoted the delivery of spiritual care to clients in Lourdes. This paper discusses the experiential learning of students based on Gibbs (1988) Framework of Reflection.

This paper aims to explore the meaning of spirituality in relation to nursing care using concept synthesis. Walker and Avant give three ways in which concept synthesis can occur: discovering new dimensions to old concepts, searching for similarities and discrepancies among sets of related concepts, and observing previously undescribed phenomena. It is the first two of these methods which have been used here.

In thinking through practice reflections Margi uses images and text to contemplate the form of conversation when spiritual/ elemental experience enables a person or family to reconnect the layers of their everyday world with the heart or centre of their being.

Both clients and caregivers are confronted with their own spiritual needs in the search for meaning within the health care experience. Yet, time for reflection on the powerful nature and mutuality of care giving is often crowded out by the busyness and intensity of health care. Using a guided reflection technique, 40 nurse participants in five focus groups examined a written nurse-client encounter.

The purpose of this family-focused, grounded-theory study was to develop a substantive theory that explains how individual family members heal in the aftermath of youth suicide. Individual healing following youth suicide is conceptualized as a process of "journeying toward wholeness." In response to youth suicide, survivors characteristically tap into their innate strengths and coping capabilities. Eventually, most survivors move toward healing. Precipitated by youth suicide, individual healing was found to be a contextually mediated, ongoing, dynamic, and recursive process.

Holistic nurses believe that the human being, composed of a mind, body and soul integrated into an inseparable whole that is greater than the sum of the parts, is in constant interaction with the universe and all that it contains. Health and well-being depend on attaining harmony in these relationships. Healing is the journey toward holism. Using presence, intent, unconditional acceptance, love, and compassion, holistic nurses can facilitate growth and healing and help their clients to find meaning in their life experiences, life purpose, and reason for being.

This article seeks to explore how the experience of love and its expression might inform and guide reflection and inquiry into love. Despite the importance of love in our personal and professional lives, it remains a topic that has further scope for inquiry within nursing circles. The article takes as its catalyst an encounter that emerged out of a piece of research that was exploring individuals' experiences of becoming healers and the journey they undertook.

Meditation is gaining popularity as an effective means of managing and attenuating pain and has been particularly effective for migraines. Meditation additionally addresses the negative emotional states known to exist with migraines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of meditation as an immediate intervention for reducing migraine pain as well as alleviating emotional tension, examined herein as a negative affect hypothesized to be correlated with pain.

We describe the journey of personnel at one hospital to create a healing environment for patients and†staff members at all levels through the implementation of Watson's Theory of Human Caring and†her Caritas Processes (ie, loving kindness, authentic presence, spirituality, being the environment, believing in miracles). We used experiential teaching and learning to explore the nursing theory with staff members.