title: The holistic nursing care of patients with minor injuries attending the A&E department.
abstract: Philosophy, theoretical frameworks, and concepts of nursing are applied to the particular context of accident and emergency nursing. From this the research question evolves; the researcher seeks to explore the accident and emergency nurses' perceptions of the concept of holistic nursing care, a concept that is included within their department's philosophy for nursing. An ethnographic approach is applied to the research to gather rich descriptive data through exploratory interviews. The data were collected and analysed simultaneously, categories of data were developed, and these are presented here in the findings. The categories were scrutinised for patterns, similarities, and dissimilarities between the data; recurrent themes emerge. These themes shed light upon the meanings of holism in care to the respondents and offer an understanding of their cultural systems that affect the provision of holistic nursing care, these are discussed and analysed within the contexts of the existing knowledge base. The study identifies issues that adversely affect the provision of holistic nursing care, notably fragmentation of care, dissemination of nursing information, and privacy. The implications for practice are discussed, and recommendations include action research for practical issues and further research into the provision of holistic nursing care incorporating the perceptions of patients who receive care in this setting.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK. polive@uclan.ac.uk
authors.forename: Philippa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Olive
mesh_terms: D000884:Anthropology, Cultural; D016529:Emergency Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D018939:Holistic Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D006113:United Kingdom; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000451:nursing*