Reflection on Kolcaba Comfort Theory

REFLECTION ON KOLCABA COMFORT THEORY. Comfort theory was developed by Dr Kolcaba in 1984. She begins by analyzing the concept, which I think is a very important aspect to understanding the theory. The theory is based on the philosophy of holism. She views the person has a whole, consisting of a mental, emotional and spiritual life. According to Kolcaba comfort is the satisfaction of basic human needs for relief, ease, and transcendence arising from health care situations. After learning this theory I have understood three important aspects of nursing theories. These aspects are: the terms transcendence and midrange theories and the application of theory in the nursing process. When I first read the articles about the comfort theory I got mixed up. The confusion was brought about by the various terms used in the articles such as classification of patient needs, technical senses of comfort, comfort in the therapeutic context and the aspect of comfort dimensions. The faculty began by asking the class to name and describes the types of comfort and I would not associate the answer with the above terms this made me feel disappointed. However, as the faculty discussed about the three types of comfort I was able to follow through with her in the lesson. I really liked the way she explained the meaning of transcendence. Previously, I had encountered the word transcendence as I learnt about Watson theory of human caring. As I reflected back about its meaning as used by Watson I got lost in the lecture nevertheless, I got back to the track when the faculty used a clinical experience to describe its meaning. Kolcoba and Waston theories focus on the person as a whole and the word transcendence is used by both theorists to mean the same. When I learnt about waston theory I would not differentiate the “spiritual” from “religion” in relation to transcendence. The faculty shared of how she used her counseling skills to help a patient who had given up