The description of holistic nursing highlights the fact that holistic practice draws on five elements for the nurse to function in a fully inclusive and comprehensive manner:
- Knowledge – Nursing knowledge is necessary for basic, legally-defensible nursing practice.
- Theories – Theories are needed to articulate, understand, reflect on and guide practice.
- Expertise – Expertise is needed to perform easily perform tasks and for the ability to make accurate decisions about care.
- Intuition – Intuition is critical for understanding the subjective experience of others and interpreting the underlying meaning of dis ease for healing.
- Creativity – Creativity is needed to solve problems and to identify new ways of being present with clients.
Each one of these elements is as important as the others and all must be present for the practice to be called ‘holistic’.
These elements require the nurse to function across three domains:
- Cognitive (knowledge/theory)
- Experiential (expertise)
- Affective (intuition/creativity) (Frisch, 2000).
A holistic nurse uses and values all of these elements.
A holistic nurse can move back and forth between intuitive knowing and logical reasoning; between a creative approach to care and a standard care protocol; between a hunch of what to do and a considered direction grounded in the predictions of a theory (Frisch, 2000 p. 175).”
Holistic nursing is a way of thinking, reflecting, practicing, and being-in-the-world.
Many think of holistic nursing as a way of life since the philosophy, thoughts, and self-care become incorporated into one’s daily living and professional identity.
Standards of Holistic Practice
As nurses integrate their use of alternative practices, personally and professionally, studying the Standards of holistic nursing can help nurses reflect on the intention and outcomes of alternative healing modalities which are used to address client needs.
Nurses working across cognitive, experiential and affective domains may use the Standards to articulate the philosophies and values that underpin and guide their practice. Frisch, 2000).
