The goal of alternative therapy is to help people understand
how to sustain their wellness, including their
environment. Alternative therapy is defined as the “broad
sense of healing that aspires to wholeness or harmony
within the self, the family, and the global community to
accompany, help, lead, teach, and care for others who seek
wholeness” (Achterberg, 1991). From this definition, the
importance of the interaction between persons and environment
is implicit. The therapy provides a spiritual
connection, and the classic healer moves between two
worlds: that of the spirit and that of daily life (Wardell &
Engebretson, 1998). However, alternative therapies are
not routinely taught in medical school (Dossey, 1997).
The concept that the whole is greater than the sum of
its parts, and that mind and spirit have an effect on the
body is gaining acceptance among health care professionals.
From the concept of the whole, the holistic health
movement encompasses divergent philosophies, religious
doctrines, and psychological theories (Kolcaba, 1996).
Holistic nursing is defined as a holistic approach to the
body-mind-spirit process for peace in living and for peace
in dying (Dossey & Guzzetta, 1995). The American Holistic
Nurses’ Association (AHNA) synthesized all these points to provide a more comprehensive definition as
follows:
“Holistic nursing embraces all nursing practice which
has healing the whole person as its goal. Holistic nursing
recognizes that there are two views regarding holism: that
holism involves studying and understanding the interrelationships
of the bio-psycho-social-spiritual dimensions of
the person, recognizing that the whole is greater than the
sum of its parts; and that holism involves understanding
the individual as the integrated whole interacting with and
being acted upon by both internal and external environments.”
In the modern health care society, nurses are urged to
be alert to cost-shifting that affects caring and its quality.
One of the effective ways is monitoring costs using an inexpensive
intervention, such as alternative nursing. Nurses
are challenged to operate from a holistic perspective rather
than from the limitations of a traditional Western medical
model. A nurse’s most powerful holistic tool is his/her own
self (Andrus & Lunt, 1997). Holistic nursing attempts to
mentally, emotionally, and spiritually help the patient to
set up a mutual connectedness (Schubert & Lionberger,
1995). A holistic nurse will be sensitive to the patient’s
whole spectrum of needs. In alignment with holism, the
appropriate construct for the nursing profession is healing
(Engebretson, 1997). Healing is the central concept of alternative
nursing intervention. Through the process of
healing, holism of nursing can be achieved

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Holistic alternative medicine