In: Nursing
A. Kelly Biermann is 91 years old. She is currently living in a long-term health community. Kelly has lived her life on a farm. She is very particular about eating everything natural and home grown. Her family researched nursing homes because they wanted to make sure that the facility they chose respected and followed Kelly’s life plan. Kelly has been declining in her health gradually. 1. What if…Kelly’s family wants to make sure Kelly is getting proper holistic care? What types of things can you, as the nurse, tell the family that the facilities provide to ensure the patient is having holistic care?
Holistic care in gerontology
The nurse is the person who provide holistic care to the individual .Holistic care means provide care to whole as an individual not to their body parts. In holistic care consider all aspects of well being,that is social ,spiritual, physical and emotional. The health is more only the absence of disease but also well being of all aspects of life.
When caring of elder person we adopt holistic care to that individuals. As a nurse we take care the person as a whole.aging cause lot of changes in all aspects of life and they can face lot of problems related to these changes. We are the person help them to cope up with situations.
charecterestics of good holistic care
:good holistic care is based on the need of the patient.
:holistic care can foster the integration of self care.
:it treat person as a hole.
:mutual understanding between health care provider and patient.
:respect the value of each individual .
:treating every person differently.
Principles of holistic care
:unconditioned love and support is the integral part of care.
:person is responsible for their own health and wellness.
:all people have innate healing power .
:healing address all aspect of person's life.
:treatment involve fixing the cause of problems not only their symptoms .
Intervention in holistic care
:proper nutrition
:education
:counselling
:execise and meditation.
:monitoring
:promote self care and support daily living activities.
:allow spiritual time
:spiritual counselling
:psychotherapy
:alternative medicine like acupuncture, yoga etc,
Areas of holistic care
:physical
:social
:emotional .
:spiritual.
:intellectual
Benefits of holistic care
:well being of all aspects of life
:increase patient satisfaction
:improve self care
:improve over all general health.
How to know the effectiveness of holistic care
:improve patient out come
:well being of all aspects of health.
:patient is able to do self care activities .
:improve emotional status.
:healthy dietary habits
From the above scenario, as a nurse we have to explain regarding holistic care and activities are performed in holistic care. The facilities provided in holistic care services are diet, exercise, psychotherapy, counseling ,spiritual counselling, management of disease condition ,assistance for self care activities and application of alternative medicine such as acupuncture and yoga. Explain these type of facilities to family members and assured them that the decline in health is more common among elder people, this decline increased with age.