Patient and Problem
Helen is a 67-year-old white female. She has a history of arthritis, hypertension, and right sided CVA with left hemiparesis. The hemiparesis has affected her dominant hand; hence, she cannot write. In addition, her non-paralyzed side is weakened. Her religious affiliation is based on a commune that practices New Age religious beliefs. The commune adheres to vegetarian diet, beliefs in prayer and crystals to heal body imbalances. The diagnoses confirmed pneumonia, dehydration, upper tract infections (UTI) and pressure ulcer. The Emergency Room (ER) nurse termed the pressure ulcer as ‘huge’. Based on the diagnosis the planned medical treatment was surgical management of the coccygeal ulcer. On the other hand, there was the issue of religious beliefs. For example, the accompanying caretaker, Anna had objected the placement of an indwelling catheter. She argued that Helen could achieve balance without tubes. Thus, the following paper presents the possible holistic intervention based on PICO.
Intervention
I used the internet to search for databases that contain information on life sciences and the holistic care. I identified two databases the EMBASE and Medline. I settled on Medline because it has medical, dental and nursing journals. I then searched for Medline and found that it could be accessed through ProQuest, Web Knowledge, EBSCO, and PubMed. The sites required membership subscription in order to gain access except PubMed. Thus, I chose PubMed. To access the article in PubMed search site, I refined the search to full free articles. I then used keywords ‘pressure ulcers and holistic care’. This provided me with many articles. I read the abstracts for the various articles and opted for the article, ‘Managing Pressures Ulcers in a Resource Constrained Situation: A Holistic Approach’. According to Dam, Datta, Mohanty and Badndhopadhyay (2011), the article employs a holistic care delivery process that is centered on evidence-based practice and patient’s attributes.
I logged into PubMed home page. In the search site, I entered my search words ‘evidence-based care’ and searched. I customized the search for text availability to free full text. In the species category, I customized it into humans. Further, in the journal category, I refined the search to search words ‘management of pressure ulcers. I skimmed over the articles, and I settled on the article ‘Pressure ulcers: Current understanding and newer modalities of treatment’. The article outlines an evidence-based care for people with pressure ulcers (Bhattacharya & Mishra, 2015).
Outcome
The holistic care is a form of healing, which is based on the philosophy of healing environments (Zamanzadeh, Jasemi, Valizadeh, Keogh & Teleghani, 2015). As such, the care decision for patients is centered on healing the body, mind, spirit and the emotions. The basis of the healing is the integration of the evidence-based practices with the mind and spiritual healing. The first article provided care delivery for the patient based on a reflection that was centered on individual decisions making process, cultural consideration, and medical principles. The care provision as outlined is based on the healing hospital paradigm, which entails the reflection of the beliefs, values and philosophies of the person being treated (Zborowsky & Hellmich, 2011).
The relevant care outcome for Helen will be a healing process that takes care of body, mind and spirituality. The concept plays a critical role in healing the body, mind and spirit. In this case, it will be based on provision of meaning, purpose and connection to Helen’s culture. However, the health professionals should explain to Helen’s caregiver the need for the integration of the medical process and spiritual concept and the dangers of extreme beliefs that may alter the treatment process.
References
Bhattacharya, S., & Mishra, R. (2015). Pressure ulcers: Current understanding and newer modalities of treatment. Indian Journal of Plastic Surgery, 48(1), 1-16.
Dam, A., Datta, N., Mohanty, U., & Badndhopadhyay, C. (2011). Managing pressure ulcers in a resource constrained situation: A holistic approach. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 17(3), 255-259.
Zamanzadeh, V., Jasemi, M., Valizadeh, L., Keogh, B., & Teleghani, H. (2015). Effective factors in providing holistic care: A qualitative study. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 21(2), 214-224.
Zborowsky, T., & Hellmich, L. (2011). Impact of place on people and process: The integration of research on the built environment in the planning and design of critical care areas. Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, 34(4), 268-281.