Concept of Holistic in Nursing: A review article

During the development of nursing profession, nurses have encountered such terms as wholeness and holism. Considering the fact that these issues were introduced into theories and practices with different approaches, they differed from context to context and period to period. The purpose of this study was to clarify the concept of holism in nurses' philosophical views and to investigate possible relevant factors in its institutionalization. This is a narrative review study that was done in 2014 by exploring databases such as Pubmed, Elsevier, Ovid, Google Scholar, SID and Iranmedex and using Holistic, Holistic Nursing and Holistic Approach in nursing and their English equals keywords. 41 articles were found and after studying their abstracts, 20 articles were selected for review. The concept of holism refers to this fact that the maximum of wellbeing and health occurs when all of the human being's inseparable features are balanced and in harmony with each other. Delivering holistic care to clients serves to retrieve their awareness, power and self-care responsibility and has a critical role in developing nurses' professional position and increasing their authority and professional self-confidence. Holistic practice in nursing leads to the improvement of clients' lifestyle and satisfaction. In today's challenging condition, the officials' close attention in education and management is needed to consider influencing factors in establishing a holistic overview in nurses and removing barriers to practicing it.