A study to evaluate the effects of nursing care i̇mplementations based on Kolcaba's comfort theory for the end of life patients comfort levels and the life quality

Objective: The study was based on Kolcaba's comfort theory, and it was carried out as a quasi-experimentalpost-test within independent groups and a control group to determine the effect of nursing care interventions on the comfort level of the quality of life of the end-of-life patients. Materials and Methods: İn this study we compare 30 experimental and 30 control patients, aged between 25-70 years, at least elementary school graduates who were in the palliative care unit between September 2017 and September 2018, whom could be contacted, who stayed in the unit at least two weeks and accepted to be a part of this study.While the patients of experimental group were cared according to the nursing care plan based on Kolcaba's comfort theory, the patients of control group received the standard care plan of the institution. The results were evaluated according to standart comfort scale and general life quality scale. The datas of independent groups according to t test while the datas of dependent group analyzed by the t test, yates corrected chi-square test, fisher exact test, mann withney u test, Wilcoxon signed rank test, pearson correlation analysis. Results: The general comfort level of the patients in the experimental group where nursing interventions based on Kolcaba's comfort theory was applied, was significantly higher than the control group (p <.001), but the physical comfort subscale score average was higher than the control group, but the mean of the difference was not significant (p>.05), the mean score of environmental comfort subscale was significantly higher than the control group (p <.001), the average score of psychospiritual comfort subscale (2.87 ± .11) compared to the control group.It was determined that there was no significant difference between socio-cultural comfort subscale scores (p> .05), and overall quality of life score was significantly higher than the control group (p <.05). Conclusion: It was determined that the comfort level and quality of life of the patients in the experimental group receiving nursing care interventions based on the Kolcaba's comfort theory were higher than the control group. The quality of life and comfort levels of end-of-life patients receiving comfort-specific care were increased. Keywords: Comfort, end of life, nurse, care.