What’s in a Definition? Holistic Nursing, Integrative Health Care, and Integrative Nursing: Report of an Integrated Literature Review

Abstract

Background: Nurses and others have used various terms to describe our caring/healing approach to practice. Because terms used can influence our image of ourselves and the image others have of us, we sought to clarify their meanings. Questions: How are the terms holistic nursing, integrative health care, and integrative nursing defined or described? Do we identify with these definitions/descriptions? Are the various terms the same or are they distinct? Method: We conducted an integrated review of peer-reviewed literature following the process described by Whittemore and Knafl. Using standard search methods, we reviewed full texts of 94 published papers and extracted data from 58 articles. Findings: Holistic describes “whole person care” often acknowledging body–mind–spirit. Holistic nursing defines a disciplinary practice specialty. The term integrative refers to practice that includes two or more disciplines or distinct approaches to care. Both terms, integrative and holistic, are associated with alternative/complementary modalities and have similar philosophical and/or theoretical underpinnings. Conclusions: There is considerable overlap between holistic nursing and integrative nursing. The relationship of integrative nursing to integrative health care is unclear based solely on definitions. Consideration of terms used provides opportunities for reflection, collaboration, and growth.

Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Qualitative Study for Reconsidering Nursing Care in the United States

“…Conceptions of holistic nursing practice (Dossey, 2016) fully embrace and are compatible with TCM approaches. TCM is both integrative and holistic consistent with the notion that both embrace a similar philosophy and theoretical underpinning (Frisch & Rabinowitsch, 2019).…”

Salutogenic-Oriented Mental Health Nursing: Strengthening Mental Health Among Adults with Mental Illness

“…Antonovsky [15] was occupied with a holistic view on human beings, focusing on the history of the person more than the symptoms, risk factors, and the organ dysfunction. Different labels are used to describe approaches similar to salutogenic nursing; we might mention holistic nursing and integrative health care [73]. A review of the nurses' role in health promotion practice shows that their activities were guided by an individualistic and holistic approach to help patients and families make health decisions and support them in health promotion activities [74].…”

A Philosophical Review of School Nursing Framed by the Holistic Nursing Theory of Barbara Dossey

“…Holistic nursing is derived from the philosophies of holism and humanism (Frisch & Rabinowitsch, 2019). Dossey (2016) has developed a holistic nursing theory (see Table 1).…”