Journal of Holistic Nursing

Public affirmation of core principles for relating with clients is needed in order to assure continued viability of quality nursing practice in this era of competition and managed health care. Practitioners of professional nursing can reassert their legitimate claim to quality nursing care through an emphasis on the practice of salutogenic psychosocial nursing. The presumption is that clients, families, and communities who benefit from salutogenic nursing care are more likely to heal and stay well because they have developed competencies for managing the details of their health situations. This paper presents key characteristics of salutogenic psychosocial nursing, along with their implications for assuring quality nursing practice.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of relaxation exercises on anxiety levels in an inpatient general psychiatric unit. The conceptual framework used was holism. A convenience sample of 39 subjects was studied. Anxiety levels were measured prior to and post interventions with the state portion of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Progressive muscle relaxation, meditative breathing, guided imagery, and soft music were employed to promote relaxation. A significant reduction in anxiety level was obtained on the post-test. The findings of this study can be incorporated by holistic nurses to help reduce anxiety levels of general psychiatric inpatients by using relaxation interventions.

This article is intended to promote thought and discussion among nurses on the issue of physician-assisted suicide. A case study is presented to highlight some of the issues involved. A review of the literature presents medical and nursing views. The Netherlands' experience is summarized, with attention to the historical development and acceptance of assisted suicide and euthanasia in Dutch society. A review of current U.S. legal challenges follows, including decisions in Washington and New York in March and April 1996. The reader is asked to consider the ramifications of physician-assisted suicide and whether it should be an end-of-life choice.

The challenges and losses that accompany aging may alter task performance and self-care ability. However, resourceful elders maintain independence in daily tasks despite adverse situations. Resourcefulness consists of self-help strategies for coping with adversity. Elders may also seek help from others when faced by challenges or losses. This study examines self-help and help-seeking behaviors in relation to depressive cognitions, adaptive functioning, and life satisfaction among 120 healthy elders. Self-help was significantly correlated with the absence of depressive cognitions and with higher adaptive functioning, but help-seeking was not. Both self-help and help-seeking were significantly correlated with greater life satisfaction. However, self-help and help-seeking were not associated. The findings suggest that healthy elders may benefit from interventions that facilitate self-help and those that teach them to seek outside help. Future research should examine self-help and help-seeking strategies in elders whose physical or psychological health is compromised.

Spiritual relationships are connections to self or soul, to others, to a higher power, or to nature. All relationships have the potential to be spiritual. The depth or intimacy of the relationship is directly related to the human being's individual personal knowledge of self or soul-searching. Grounded theory and phenomenological research studies validate that spiritual relationships play an important role in one's spirituality. Theoretical and operational definitions, attributes, and several cases (e.g., model, related, contrary, and metaphorical) of spiritual relationships are discussed. Attributes and consequences are identified.

Chronic illness is currently the number one health problem facing the United States. Little is known about the experience of making chronic illness a part of one's life, particularly from the perspective of the chronically ill person. The purpose of this phenomenological inquiry was to explore how chronically ill adults integrate chronic illness into their lives. Seventeen chronically ill adults were interviewed by the researcher. Using a modification of Colaizzi's (1978) method of data analysis, 4 major themes emerged. These themes were: confronting loss, fluctuating emotions, making changes, and gaining control of an altered life direction. Some of the major recommendations and implications for nursing practice centered around perceiving the entire experience of chronic illness with an emphasis on the need to recognize and assess loss as an ongoing and unending experience, and how this loss influences a participant's willingness and ability to implement changes required by the medical treatment plan.