Title: "Holistic" - What does this mean to you? - Holistic Nursing - allnurses®
Headings: "Holistic" - What does this mean to you?
"Holistic" - What does this mean to you?
VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN
brighella
EmerNurse, BSN, RN
Barb101
healingtouchRN
CardioTrans, BSN, RN
healingtouchRN
zuzi
Barb101
VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN
guerrierdelion
nursingstudent317
amzyRN
Miss Chybil RN, BSN, RN

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VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN
Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych. Has 20 years experience. Apr 20, 2007
I have always viewed the term 'holistic' as 'whole-istic'---meaning that one approaches the patient as a 'whole' person and takes into account not only body, mind, and spirit, but culture, family, friends, and life experience. ( In short, everything that makes us who we are.) I'll use a resident from my assisted living facility as an example: I learned very early in my association with this woman that all the medication in the world cannot "fix" a human being suffering from spiritual pain. She's lived with chronic pain for many years, but during the course of several rather lengthy discussions with her, I found that as life has become harder for her over the years, the worse the pain has become. Now her spouse of 56 years is dying in a nursing home across town, and the pain is intractable despite massive doses of fentanyl, Vicodin, Neurontin, and amitriptyline. She has always had fibromyalgia and arthritis; but it only became impossible to live with when her husband was transferred a couple of months ago.