Nurses’ Holistic Approach for Patients with Diabetic Foot Disease
Abadies, Anthony John; Bando, Bernadith; Lazado, Mary Ann (2026)
2026
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2026050710013
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2026050710013
Tiivistelmä
The purpose of this descriptive literature review was to describe nurses’ holistic approaches in caring for patients with diabetic foot disease and to identify the challenges nurses’ encounter in implementing holistic care. A structured literature search was conducted using commonly used health-science databases CINAHL and Pro Quest. Twelve peer-reviewed scientific articles published between 2015 and 2025 were included and chosen using the methods of inductive qualitative content analysis. The identified holistic interventions and challenges were categorized into meaning units, condensed meaning units, codes, sub-categories and generic categories.
The findings indicate that nurses apply a multidimensional holistic approach encompassing educational empowerment, self-care competence, therapeutic and trust-building communication, patient-centred support and the enhancement of professional competence. These interventions extend beyond clinical wound management to address patients’ psychosocial well-being, emotional experiences and everyday self-management demands. However, the implementation of holistic care is hindered by several challenges. Identified barriers include limitations in professional competence, communication difficulties, system-level and role-related constraints, insufficient resources, patient-related factors, emotional workload and the limited institutional integration of holistic nursing practices.
This review concludes that nurses play a central role in facilitating holistic DFD care by integrating educational, preventive, psychosocial and relational components into practice. Strengthening nursing education, organizational support and interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to improve holistic diabetic foot care and enhance patient outcomes. These findings contribute new knowledge to nursing practice, underscore the need for further research on interventions that support comprehensive and patient-centred care for individuals living with diabetic foot disease.
The findings indicate that nurses apply a multidimensional holistic approach encompassing educational empowerment, self-care competence, therapeutic and trust-building communication, patient-centred support and the enhancement of professional competence. These interventions extend beyond clinical wound management to address patients’ psychosocial well-being, emotional experiences and everyday self-management demands. However, the implementation of holistic care is hindered by several challenges. Identified barriers include limitations in professional competence, communication difficulties, system-level and role-related constraints, insufficient resources, patient-related factors, emotional workload and the limited institutional integration of holistic nursing practices.
This review concludes that nurses play a central role in facilitating holistic DFD care by integrating educational, preventive, psychosocial and relational components into practice. Strengthening nursing education, organizational support and interdisciplinary collaboration is essential to improve holistic diabetic foot care and enhance patient outcomes. These findings contribute new knowledge to nursing practice, underscore the need for further research on interventions that support comprehensive and patient-centred care for individuals living with diabetic foot disease.