Figure 1-2. Taxonomic Structure of Comfort

 

RELIEF

EASE

TRANSCENDENCE

PHYSICAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PSYCHOSPIRITUAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ENVIRONMENTAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOCIOCULTURAL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Type of comfort:

 

            Relief – the state of having a specific comfort need met.

 

            Ease – the state of calm or contentment.

           

            Transcendence – the state in which one can rise above problems or pain.

 

Context in which comfort occurs:

 

Physical – pertaining to bodily sensations, homeostatic mechanisms, immune function, etc.

 

Psychospiritual – pertaining to internal awareness of self, including esteem, identity, sexuality, meaning in one’s life, and one’s understood relationship to a higher order or being.

 

Environmental – pertaining to the external background of human experience (temperature, light, sound, odor, color, furniture, landscape, etc.)

 

Sociocultural – pertaining to interpersonal, family, and societal relationships (finances, teaching, health care personnel, etc.) Also to family traditions, rituals, and religious practices.

 

 

Adapted with permission from Kolcaba, K. & Fisher, E. A holistic perspective on comfort care as an advance directive. Crit Care Nurs Q,18(4):66-76, (c)1996. Aspen Publishers.