Nursing as a profession has since time immemorial strived to deliver a high quality holistic care to clients and patients. The holistic care targets physical, spiritual, psychological, and social well-being of a patient, and is often tailored to suit individual context (Rice, 2007). Context is hereby construed to mean patient’s diagnosis, its chronicity, and stage of recovery amongst others.
According to Goldsmith (2008), social support refers to the material, emotional, and informational assistance that a patient obtains from his social networks. Social network may include the family, neighbors, friends, co-workers, and formal agencies. Whatever the source, the purpose is to speed up ...