Journal of Holistic Nursing

Background: Wounded, ill, and injured (WII) Military Service members experience significant stress and are at risk for developing chronic conditions including posttraumatic stress disorder and depression. Qigong, a meditative movement practice, may positively affect their ability to engage in successful rehabilitation. Purpose: We assessed the feasibility of Qigong practice in WII Service members returning from combat; effects on stress, sleep, and somatic symptoms; satisfaction; and participants’ experience with the practice. Design: Single-group, pre- and posttest, mixed methods approach. Method: Twenty-six WII were enrolled. The program was designed to include 20 classes over 10 weeks. Participants completed self-report questionnaires, practice logs, and an exit interview. Findings: Average attendance was 8.14 classes (SD = 4.9); mean engagement was 5.7 (SD = 3.5) weeks. Participants endorsed a high level of satisfaction with the practice. Qualitative themes included coping with stress; feeling more resilient and empowered; improvement in symptoms including sleep and physical function; and factors affecting practice. Participant-reported facilitators included accessibility and portability of the practice; barriers included scheduling conflicts and personal challenges. Participants recommended offering shorter programs with flexible scheduling options, increasing program awareness, and including significant others in future classes. Conclusion: Qigong was safe, portable, and easily adapted for WII Service members.

Aim: To examine the effectiveness of a bio-energy intervention on self-reported stress for a convenience sample of University students, faculty, and staff during finals week. We hypothesized that participants would report a decrease in stress after a 20 minute bio-energy intervention. Study Design: A quasi-experimental, single-group, pretest–posttest design was used. Method: Thirty-nine faculty, staff, and students participated. Participants served as their own controls. A specific technique was provided by each bio-energy practitioner for 20 minutes after participants had completed a visual analogue scale identifying level of stress and listing two positive and negative behaviors they were currently using in response to stress. Results: A one-sample t test indicates that bio-energy therapy significantly reduces stress, t(35) = 7.74, p < .0001. A multiple regression analysis further indicates that the decrease in stress levels is significantly greater for higher initial stress levels, t(31) = 4.748, p < .0001); decreases in stress are significantly greater for faculty and staff compared to students, t(31) = −2.223, p = .034; and decreases in stress levels are marginally significantly higher for older participants, t(31) =1.946, p = .061. Conclusion: Bio-energy therapy may have benefit in reducing stress for faculty, staff, and students during final examination week. Further research is needed.

Purpose: To describe the impact of episodes of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) on a person’s daily life from a holistic perspective. Method: A deductive descriptive design was used. Twenty semistructured interviews (12 women and 8 men) were conducted before planned ablation of SVT and were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Results: Living with SVT had a complex impact on daily life. Initially, the patients described an inhibited existence due to demands to give up things that they had previously been doing, in case the unpredictable episodes of SVT would occur. The episodes caused fatigue and worry, which together created a barrier for living life to the full by making the person give up undertakings. The patients constantly needed to find short-term and long-term strategies to prevent new episodes from happening. Conclusion: Episodes of SVT entail a complex life situation as the person’s entire existence is affected in daily life. To understand the impact of SVT on daily life, nurses and other health care professionals need increased knowledge and understanding to be able to provide support through relevant information and take optimal care measures.

Theories on the importance of holistic and spiritual healing within nonconventional models of care are vast, yet there is little written about the practical, clinical-level interventions required to deliver such practices in collaborative cross-cultural settings. This article describes the learning experiences and transformative journeys of non-Indigenous nurse practitioners working with a Cultural Lead from an Indigenous community in British Columbia, Canada. The goal of the Seven Sisters Healthy Heart Project was to improve heart health promotion in an Indigenous community through a model of knowledge translation. The article describes the development of a bridge between two cultures in an attempt to deliver culturally responsive programming. Our journeys are represented in a phenomenological approach regarding relationships, pedagogy, and expertise. We were able to find ways to balance two worlds—the medical health services model and Indigenous holistic models of healing. The key to building the bridge was our willingness to be vulnerable, to trust in each other’s way of teaching and learning, and allowing diverse viewpoints and knowledge sources to be present. Our work has vast implications for health promotion in Indigenous communities, as it closes the gap between theory and practice by demonstrating how Indigenous models can be integrated into mainstream health promotion practices.

This study explored the frequency of providing aspects of spiritual care intervention and its association with nurses’ own spiritual well-being in a convenience sample of 355 Jordanian Arab Muslim nurses. The nurses were recruited from different hospitals, representing both public and private health care sectors in northern and central Jordan. A cross-sectional descriptive and correlational design was used. Results indicated that Jordanian Muslim nurses provided religious aspects of spiritual care intervention to their Muslim patients infrequently and that their own spiritual well-being was positively associated with the frequency of provision of spiritual care interventions. The study concluded that Jordanian Muslim nurses most frequently provided spiritual care interventions that were existential, not overtly religious, were commonly used, were more traditional, and did not require direct nurse involvement. Moreover, the findings revealed that spiritual well-being was important to those nurses, which has implications for improving the provision of spiritual care intervention. The study provides information that enables nurses, nursing managers, and nursing educators to evaluate the nurses’ provision of various aspects of spiritual care to their Muslim patients, and to identify aspects of spiritual care intervention where nurses might receive training to become competent in providing this care.

This qualitative study was designed to uncover the characteristics and behaviors of nurses identified by patients as providing exceptional nursing care. “Being present” and “Knowing the patient” were the major themes that captured the nurses’ experience. Four subthemes were identified: looking for commonalities, sharing personal experiences, use of humor, and caring for the spiritual needs of patients.

Delivery of care by nurses in virtual environments is rapidly increasing with uptake of digitally mediated technologies, such as remote patient monitoring (RPM). Knowing the person is a phenomenon in nursing practice deemed requisite to building relationships and informing clinical decisions, but it has not been studied in virtual environments. Purpose of Study: The intent of this study was to explicate the processes of how nurses come to know the person using RPM, one form of telehealth technology used in a virtual environment. Study Design and Method: The study was informed by Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory and included 33 interviews and 5 observational experiences of nurses using RPM in 7 different settings. Findings: Getting a Picture evolved as the core category to a theoretical conceptualization of nurses knowing the person through use of RPM and other technologies, such as telephone and electronic medical records. Getting a Picture reflected a dynamic flow and integration of seven processes, such as Connecting With the Person and Recording and Reflecting, to describe how nurses strove to attain a visualization of the person. Conclusions: While navigating disparate and disconnected information and communication technologies, Getting a Picture was important for providing safe, holistic, person-centered care.

Purpose: This pilot study explored change over time in symptom management, health promotion, and quality of life following exposure to a holistic intervention combining group acupuncture with group sessions about health promotion for women with multiple sclerosis. Design: This was a pre/post nonexperimental design. Method: Fourteen women (average age 54 years) attended eight classes designed to help participants build the skills necessary to improve their health and consequently their overall quality of life. Acupuncture was provided in a group setting either immediately before or after each class. Findings: Self-reported fatigue, stress, pain, depression, anxiety, and sleep interference decreased significantly, and overall health-promoting behaviors, self-efficacy for health promotion, social functioning, and quality of life increased significantly. In addition, focus groups held with the participants indicated that they responded positively to the combination of acupuncture with an efficacy-building health promotion intervention. Conclusions: The results of this pilot study add to the growing literature demonstrating that holistic health promotion interventions may have positive benefits for people with multiple sclerosis. Delivering acupuncture to a small group of individuals attending wellness classes appears to be feasible and was generally well received by the study participants.

Acute care nursing is currently undergoing unprecedented change, with health systems becoming more open to nonpharmacological approaches to patient care. Healing Touch (HT) may be a valuable intervention for acute care patients. Research has shown that HT helps both the patient and the caregiver; however, no study to date has examined the impact that the education of nurses in and their use of HT have on daily care delivery in the acute care setting. The purpose of the current qualitative study was to examine the use of HT by registered nurses in the acute care setting during their delivery of patient care, as well as the impact of education in and use of HT on the nurses themselves. Five themes were identified: (1) use of HT techniques, processes, and sequence; (2) outcomes related to HT; (3) integration of HT into acute care nursing practice; (4) perceptions of HT, from skepticism to openness; and (5) transformation through HT. Education in HT and delivery of this modality by nurses in the acute care setting provide nurses with a transformative tool to improve patient outcomes.