Kolcaba: background
Katherine Kolbaca was born in Cleveland, Ohio on December 8, 1944. She
graduated from Case Western Reserve University, receiving her Master’s degree in
nursing in 1987 and her PhD in nursing in 1997. She has specialized in many different
areas of nursing including comfort care, End of Life interventions, nursing research and nursing theory. In the 1990s Kolbaca published the Theory of Comfort and then later revised and updated her theory in 2001 (McEwen & Wills, 2011, p.234). Today Kolbaca is an associate professor, teaching nursing at the University of Akron’s College of Nursing (Comfort theory, 2011).
graduated from Case Western Reserve University, receiving her Master’s degree in
nursing in 1987 and her PhD in nursing in 1997. She has specialized in many different
areas of nursing including comfort care, End of Life interventions, nursing research and nursing theory. In the 1990s Kolbaca published the Theory of Comfort and then later revised and updated her theory in 2001 (McEwen & Wills, 2011, p.234). Today Kolbaca is an associate professor, teaching nursing at the University of Akron’s College of Nursing (Comfort theory, 2011).
Comfort Theory: background
Kolbaca first introduced her Theory of Comfort in 1994 which was based on her work as a graduate student studying the concept of comfort (McEwen &Wills, 2011, p. 234). Comfort theory is a middle range nursing theory in which comfort is defined as “the immediate state of being strengthened by having the needs for relief, ease, and transcendence addressed in the four contexts of holistic human experience: physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental” (Comfort Theory, 2011). Achieving comfort allows the individual to engage in health-seeking behaviors which can be internal (physiologic healing), external (health related activities), or a peaceful death. To summarize, Kolbaca’s Theory of Comfort is rooted in the beliefs that
increasing a patient’s level of comfort can help create health-seeking behaviors in individuals.