Isn comfort care impractical in a downsized setting?
Comfort care is efficient and satisfying to patients and nurses; thus, it is even more important in a time of limited resources. Plus, comfort care offers a framework for making nurses recognizable and indispensable because of what they do. When patients and families associate enhanced comfort with Registered Nurses, they will DEMAND that RNs are readily available. Also, Comfort Care is a framework for interdisciplinary health care, as it focuses on patients. As such it is a unifying framework for care for the future. Note: when presenting comfort care to students last semester, one earnest young man who had some prior experience working in nursing homes raised his hand and asked, “Is this a new concept? I have never seen it being practiced!” I think this is a wake-up call to us in nursing practice and education to get back to the basics.
