EPA-0776 – The Comfort Care in Nursing Practice: A Systematic Review Study

Abstract

Introduction:

This paper reports findings of a systematic review study (SR), with focus on comfort in nursing practice. There are a lot of research works about this phenomenon on different samples of patients or caregivers, frequently nurses, carried out abroad, that allow us to understand points of view and experiences of those care actors, separately. The elderly person is a client and a patient with specificities arising from the aging process, and this can change the patient's perspectives regarding live, health and comfort as opposed to adult's ones; so, elderly people should be studied separately.

Aims:

This SR's goal is to identify qualitative studies that were focused in understanding the comforter care, in sample groups of elderly patients and their nurses. The research question is: How does nurse handle care that is experienced as comforter care by the elderly patient?

Methods:

We used PI[C]OD methodology and a metasummary technique to analyse and integrate data.

Results:

We identified only three primary research studies in those circumstances and their findings were analysed and synthesized.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, SR findings can only contribute to a partial knowledge about comforter care, and moreover, they don’t allow us to reach any conclusion regarding comforter care of elderly patients, especially due to the mixed nature of samples (adults and elderly people) on primary studies. It seems evident that it is necessary to undertake a research study to obtain knowledge about the way nurses handle care that elderly patients experience as comforter.