The phenomenology of comfort

From patient narratives, the phenomenological literature and reflection of patients' autobiographical accounts of illness, nine themes reflecting the phenomenological concept of corporeality were used to identify the ways patients achieve comfort. The themes were: the dis-eased body, the disobedient body, the vulnerable body, the violated body, the resigned body, the enduring body, the betraying body and the betraying (neurotic) mind. The process of achieving comfort is based on the patients' needs to live with illness or injury without being dominated by their bodies. The authors argue that while the role of nursing is to provide comfort to the sick, the goal of total comfort is unattainable in patient care. However, if the goal is to enhance comfort, to ease and to relieve distress, comfort remains central to the role of nursing.