Nurse comforting strategies: perceptions of emergency department patients

Throughout nursing's history, comfort has been a desired outcome in the provision of nursing care. Yet, attempts to understand comfort and comforting have only recently emerged. To date,few studies have explored comfort and comforting from patients' perspectives. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory study was to describe nurse comforting strategies as well as the outcomes of nurse comforting strategies from the perspective of emergency department (ED) patients. The study took place in a rural Canadian acute care regional hospital. A volunteer sample of 14 hospitalized patients who had received initial treatment in the ED were interviewed. Interviews were transcribed and content analysis performed. Participants described nurses' comforting strategies under the following categories: immediate and competent technical/physical care, positive talk, vigilance, attending to physical discomforts, and including and attending to family. The comforting strategies used by nurses had a positive impact on the physical and emotional well-being of the participants.