Rogers Theory of Unitary Human Beings

Copyright © 2015 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Chapter 9
Grand Nursing Theories Based on
Unitary Process

Martha Rogers
“The story of nursing is a magnificent
epic of service to mankind”
M. E. Rogers, 1971

Martha Rogers—(cont.)
• Martha Rogers was born in 1914 in Dallas, TX.
• Diploma from the Knoxville General Hospital School of
Nursing (1936)
• BS in Public Health from George Peabody College in
Nashville

Martha Rogers—(cont.)
• Executive director of the VNA in Phoenix for several years
• MA in Public Health Supervision from Teacher’s College,
Columbia University (1945)
• Master’s degree in public health in 1952 and Doctor of
Science (DSc) in 1954 from Johns Hopkins
• Chair of the Department of Nursing Education at NY
University (1954–1979)
• Died in 1994

Martha Rogers—Books
• Educational Revolution in Nursing (1961)—
encouraged liberal university education for nurses
• Reveille in Nursing (1964)—described a curriculum
for nursing education
• Theoretical Basis of Nursing (1970)—contained the
basis of her theory

Science of Unitary Human Beings
• For her model, Rogers drew from anthropology,
psychology, sociology, physics, mathematics, and
literature.
• Her work can also be traced to Nightingale as well as
Einstein, Burr, and Northrop (electrodynamic
theory/electrical fields) and von Bertalanffy (systems
theory).
• Continuing development relates to chaos theory and
quantum physics.

Science of Unitary Human Beings—(cont.)
• Concepts are derived from the view of the universe as a
collection of open systems, which interact continuously
without causality.
• Human beings are dynamic energy fields, integral with
environmental fields.
• Both human and environmental fields are identified by
pattern and characterized by a universe of open systems.

Question
Which of the following is TRUE regarding the Science of
Unitary Human Beings?
A. The universe is a collection of open systems, which
interact continuously without causality.
B. Human beings are dynamic energy fields, distinct and
separate from environmental fields.
C. Human and environmental fields are identified by
pattern and characterized by closed systems.

Answer
A. The universe is a collection of open systems, which
interact continuously without causality.
Rationale: Important elements of Rogers’ theory involve
the integration between humans and their environment as
well as the universe and its entirety being an “open
system.”

• Humans are “unitary” being (not holistic).
• Cannot be understood by looking at their parts

• Four building blocks of the model
– Energy fields
– Universe of open systems
– Pattern
– Four dimensionality (pandimensionality)

• Energy fields
– Fundamental unit of both living and non-living
– Energy signifies the dynamic nature of the field.
– Energy fields are infinite and pandimensional.

Science of Unitary Human Beings—
(cont.)
• Energy fields—(cont.)
– Human field—irreducible, indivisible energy field
identified by pattern and manifesting characteristics
that are specific to the whole
– Environmental field—irreducible energy field that is
integral with the human field

• Universe of open systems
– Energy fields are infinite, open, and integral with
each other.
– Human and environmental fields are in continuous
process and are open.
– Change affects both systems mutually.
– Humans do not adapt to their environment but are
a part of it.

• Pattern—Energy fields are identified by their
distinguishing characteristics of energy; each human
pattern is unique and integral with its environmental
field.
– Patterns are unique and include behaviors,
qualities, and characteristics of the field.
– Pattern is continually changing and may manifest
disease, illness, feelings, or pain.

• Pandimensionality—nonlinear domain without spatial or
temporal attributes; infinite domain without limit
– Although we live in a three-dimensional world, we
are aware of other dimensions that affect us.
– Rogers describes the idea of a unitary whole.

• Homeodynamics—Changes in the life process in man
are inseparable from environmental changes and
reflect mutual interaction between the two; changes
are irreversible and nonrepeatable; increasingly
complex of pattern.
• Life process is homeodynamic and principles of
homeodynamics (resonancy, helicy, integrality)
present a way of perceiving unitary human beings.

• Helicy—continuous innovative, unpredictable,
increasing diversity of human and environmental
patterns (spiral, nonrepetitive) movement
• Resonancy—continuous change from lower to higher
frequency wave patterns in human and environmental
fields
• Integrality—continuous mutual human and
environmental field interaction process

Central Components in Rogers’ Theory
Unitary Human Being
(Energy Field
Openness
Pattern
Pandimensional)
Environment
Central Components
(Focus of Study or Care)
Principles of Homeodynamics
(Nature of Unitary Human
Development)
Resonancy
Helicy
Integrality
Specify the
Nature of

• Assumptions
– Major components of Rogers’ model revolve around
building blocks (energy fields, openness, pattern,
and pandimensionality) and the principles of
homeodynamics.
– These explain the nature and direction of the
interactions between humans and the environment.

• Nursing is an art and science concerned with maintaining
and promoting health, preventing illness, and caring for
the sick and disabled.
• Purpose of nursing is to help humans achieve well-being
within their potential.
• Nursing care should support simultaneous human and
environmental change.

• Nursing is an empirical science.
• Nursing is a humanistic science.
• The science of nursing is a prerequisite to the process of
nursing.
• Nursing practice seeks to
– Promote symphonic interaction between man and
environment
– Strengthen the coherence and integrity of the human
field
– Direct patterning of the human and environmental
fields for realization of maximum health potential

• Society of Rogerian scholars began in 1988.
– Publishes Visions: The Journal of Rogerian Nursing
Science
– Many scholars are devoted to continuing her work.

Science of Unitary Human Beings—Resources
• http://www.societyofrogerianscholars.org/index.html
• http://www.nurses.info/nursing_theory_person_rogers_
martha.htm
• http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/unitary_huma
n_beings.html

Margaret Newman

Margaret Newman—(cont.)
• Born in 1933—Memphis, TN
• BA in Home Economics and English from Baylor (sic ‘em
Bears) (1954)
• BSN—University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN (1962)
• MSN (medical-surgical nursing and nursing education)—
UCSF (1964)
• PhD in Nursing and Rehabilitation from NYU (1971)

• Became interested in nursing as she cared for her mother
(ALS)
• Faculty positions at University of Tennessee, NYU, Penn
State, and University of Minnesota
• Retired in 1996

• First presented her theory at a nursing theory conference
in New York in 1978
• Strongly influenced by Martha Rogers (student of Rogers
at NYU)
• Professor emeritus at University of Minnesota
• Currently involved in scholarship related to her theory
and nursing theory in general

Margaret Newman—Books
• Theory Development in Nursing (1979)
• Health as Expanding Consciousness (1986, 1994, 1999)
• A Developing Discipline (1995)
• Transforming Presence (2007)

Health as Expanding Consciousness
• Focus on those “for whom health as the absence of
disease or disability is not possible.”
– Originally focused on people facing the uncertainty,
debilitation, loss, and death associated with chronic
illness
– Progressed to include all persons regardless of health
status

Health as Expanding Consciousness—
(cont.)
• Asserts that everyone is part of the universal process of
expanding consciousness, which includes:
– Becoming more of oneself
– Finding greater meaning in life
– Reaching new dimensions of connectedness with
other people and the world

(cont.)
• Assumptions
– Health encompasses disease or pathology.
– Disease can be a manifestation of the underlying
patterns of the person.
– The pattern of the person manifests itself as disease,
is primary, and exists prior to structural or functional
changes.
– Health is the expansion of consciousness.

(cont.)
• Humans are unitary and cannot be divided into parts.
• Humans are open energy systems in continual contact
with a universe of open systems (the environment).
• Changes occur simultaneously—not in linear fashion.

Question
Which of the following is NOT one of the assumptions of
Newman’s Health as Expanding Consciousness theory?
A. Disease can be a manifestation of the underlying
patterns of the person.
B. Humans are open energy systems in continual contact
with a universe of open systems (the environment).
C. Changes occur in linear fashion.
D. The pattern of the person is primary and exists prior to
structural or functional changes.

Answer
C. Changes occur in linear fashion.
Rationale: In Newman’s work, changes occur
simultaneously—not in linear fashion.

(cont.)
• Health is an essential component of the theory.
– Health is a process of developing awareness of self
and the environment.
– Health includes the ability to perceive alternatives
and respond accordingly.
– Health encompasses illness or pathology and
pathologic conditions.
– Health can be viewed as manifestations of the
pattern(s) of the individual.

(cont.)
• Fluctuations in patterns that result in sickness can
reorganize the relationship of pattern more
harmoniously.
• Illness may provide the disequilibrium needed to
maintain vital active exchange with the environment—
The result is growth or evolution to create a new sense of
balance.

(cont.)
• New paradigm of health is important to nursing.
• Nurses who view disease as a manifestation of pattern
can contribute to a new awareness of the person–
environment interaction.

(cont.)
• Pattern and pattern recognition are important concepts.
– Pattern—relatedness; framework seen in the person–
environment interactions; includes movement,
diversity, and rhythm
– Pattern recognition—illuminates the possibilities for
action and is key to evolving a higher level of
consciousness
• Time and space—describe temporal patterns that define
being within the world

(cont.)
• Nursing is caring in the human health experience.
• Caring is a moral imperative for nursing.
• Caring requires that we are open and vulnerable.
• Care should evolve from treatment of symptoms to a
search for pattern.
• Nurses should assist people in getting in touch with their
own pattern of expanding consciousness.

(cont.)
• Focus of nursing is not on identifying what is wrong and
planning to correct the problems.
• The nurse should partner with the client in pattern
identification and coming together in a time of chaos and
change.
• The client can determine action possibilities for
transformation and “expanding consciousness.”

(cont.)
• Has been used on a limited basis in nursing education
• Some research conducted—mostly looking at pattern
recognition.
• Some examples of application in practice

Health as Expanding Consciousness—Resources
• http://healthasexpandingconsciousness.org
• http://nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Margaret-A-
Newman.php
• http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Newman_Heal
th_As_Expanding_Consciousness.html

Rosemarie Parse

Rosemarie Parse—(cont.)
• BSN—Duquesne University, Pittsburgh
• MSN and PhD—University of Pittsburgh
• Faculty positions at University of Pittsburgh, Duquesne
University, Hunter College (New York)
• Currently professor at Loyola University (Chicago)

Rosemarie Parse—Publications
• Man-Living-Health: A Theory of Nursing (1981)
• Illuminations: The Human Becoming Theory in
Practice and Research (1995)
• The Human Becoming School of Thought (1998)
• Community: A Human Becoming Perspective
(2003)
• Founding editor of Nursing Science Quarterly

The Theory of Humanbecoming
• Humanbecoming theory sets quality of life from the
person’s own perspective as the goal of nursing practice.
• Theory first published in 1981 as “Man-Living-Health
Theory.”
• Name changed to “Human Becoming Theory” in 1992 (to
remove “man” from title).

The Theory of Humanbecoming—(cont.)
• Human science nursing theory—derived from Dilthey,
Heidegger, and Sarte as well as Rogers
• Three themes: meaning, rhythmicity, and transcendence

• Assumptions
– Humans coexist in rhythmical patterns with the
environment.
– Humans are open beings, freely choosing meaning in
situations.
– Humans are unitary, continuously co-constituting
patterns of relating.
– Humans transcend multidimensionally with the
possibilities.

• Assumptions—(cont.)
– Becoming is unitary human-living-health.
– Becoming is a rhythmically co-constituting human–
universe process.
– Becoming is the human’s patterns of relating value
priorities.
– Becoming is an intersubjective process of
transcending with the possible.
– Becoming is unitary human’s emerging.

• Humanbecoming is freely choosing personal meaning in
situations in the intersubjective process of living values
priorities.
• Humanbecoming is cocreating rhythmical patterns of
relating in mutual process with the universe.
• Humanbecoming is cotranscending multidimensionally
with the emerging possibilities.

The Theory of Humanbecoming—
(cont.)
• Concepts of
Humanbecoming
– Languaging
– Valuing
– Imagining
– Revealing–
concealing
– Enabling–limiting
– Connecting–
separating
– Powering
– Originating
– Transforming

• Nurses guide individuals and families in choosing
possibilities in changing the health process.
– This is accomplished by intersubjective participation
with clients.
– Practice focuses on illuminating meaning.
– The nurse acts as a guide to choose possibilities in
changing health experiences.

• Nurses do not focus on changing an individual’s behavior
to fit a defined nursing process.
• Nurses understand the human–universe process and
practice “true presence” with the person and family.
• The nurse “dwells with the rhythms of the person and
family” as they move through the experience.

• Meaning
– “Structuring meaning multidimensionally is
cocreating reality through the languaging of valuing
and imaging.”
– Translation: People coparticipate in creating what is
real for them through self-expression in living their
values in a chosen way.

• Rhythmicity
– “Cocreating rhythmical patterns of relating is living
the paradoxical unity of revealing–concealing and
enabling–limiting while connecting–separating”
– Translation: The unity of life encompasses apparent
opposites in rhythmic patterns of relating.
– In living moment to moment, the individual
illustrates self as opportunities and limitations in
moving with and apart from others.

• Transcendence
– “Cotranscending with the possibilities is powering
unique ways of originating in the process of
transforming.”
– Translation: Moving beyond the “now” moment is
forging a unique path for the individual within
ambiguity and continuous change.

• Nurses illuminate meaning, synchronize rhythms, and
mobilize transcendence.
• The theory has received considerable interest but limited
use in practice.
• A number of devotees to Parse’s work
– Research is qualitative/phenomenologic.
– Parse has written a qualitative nursing research
book.

Question
Who among the following theorists included the major
assumptions of freely choosing personal meaning,
cocreating rhythmical patterns of relating, and
cotranscending multidimensionally?
A. Martha Rogers
B. Margaret Newman
C. Rosemarie Parse

Answer
C. Rosemarie Parse
Rationale: Parse developed her theory on the philosophical
underpinnings of the existential–phenomenologic thought
incorporating principles and concepts from Rogers. These
assumptions are about humans and becoming.

The Theory of Humanbecoming—Resources
• http://www.humanbecoming.org/
• http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Rosemary_Par
s_Human_Becoming_Theory.html

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