Martha Rogers

(1970)
Science of Unitary Man
Science of Unitary Man
 Nursing is an art and science that is
humanistic and humanitarian.
 It is directed toward the unitary

human and is concerned with the

nature and direction of human
development.
Science of Unitary Man
 Nursing interventions seek to:
◦ promote harmonious interaction
between persons and their
environment,
◦ strengthen the wholeness of the
individual and
◦ redirect human and environmental
patterns or organization to achieve
maximum health.
5 basic assumptions:

1. The human being is a unified whole,

possessing individual integrity and
manifesting characteristics that are more
than and different from the sum of parts.
2. The individual and the environment are
continuously exchanging matter and
energy with each other
3. The life processes of human beings evolve
irreversibly and unidirectionally along a
space-time continuum
5 basic assumptions:

4. Patterns identify human being and reflect

their innovative wholeness
5. The individual is characterized by the
capacity for abstraction and imagery,
language and thought, sensation and
emotion
Rogerian Nursing Science
 Rogers (1992) identified four fundamental
postulates:
◦ energy fields,
◦ openness,
◦ pattern, and
◦ pandimensionality,
 formerly called both four-dimensionality and
multidimensionality.
Energy field
 as “the fundamental unit of the living and the
non-living,” noting that the energy field is
infinite and dynamic, meaning that it is
continuously moving and flowing.
 She identified two energy fields of concern to

nurses, which are distinct but not separate:

the human field, or unitary human being; and
the environmental field.
◦ The human field can be conceptualized as one
person or a group, family, or community.
Pattern
 “the distinguishing characteristic of an energy
field perceived as a single wave”.
 Pattern manifestations and characteristics are

specific to the whole.

Openness

 There are no boundaries other than

perceptual ones.
 The energy of each flows continuously

through the other in an unbroken wave.

Pandimensional

 defined as “a nonlinear domain without

spatial or temporal attributes”
Metaparadigm in Nursing
PERSON
ENVIRONMENT
HEALTH
NURSING
Person

 Unitary man, a four-dimensional energy field.

Environment

 Encompasses all that is outside any given

human field. Person exchanging matter and
energy.
Health
 Not specifically addressed, but emerges out
of interaction between human and
environment, moves forward, and maximizes
human potential.
Nursing

 A learned profession that is both science and

art. The professional practice of nursing is
creative and imaginative and exists to serve
people.
Myra Estrin Levine
(1973)
Conservation Model
Conservation Model

 She advocated that nursing is a human

interaction and proposed four conservation
principles of nursing which are concerned
with the unity and integrity of the individual.
Conservation Model

 Believes nursing intervention is a

conservation activity, with conservation of
energy as a primary concern, four
conservation principles of nursing:
◦ conservation of client energy,
◦ conservation of structured integrity,
◦ conservation of personal integrity,
◦ conservation of social integrity.
Conservation Principles
Energy
Structural integrity
Personal integrity
Social integrity
1. Conservation of energy.
 The human body functions by utilizing
energy.
 The human body needs energy producing

input (food, oxygen, fluids) to allow energy

utilization output.
2. Conservation of Structural
Integrity.
 The human body has physical boundaries
(skin and mucous membrane) that must be
maintained to facilitate health and prevent
harmful agents from entering the body.
3. Conservation of Personal Integrity.
 The nursing interventions are based on the
conservation of the individual client’s
personality.
 Every individual has sense of identity, self

worth and self esteem, which must be

preserved and enhanced by nurses.
4. Conservation of Social Integrity.
 The social integrity of the client reflects the
family and the community in which the client
functions.
 Health care institutions may separate

individuals from their family.

 It is important for nurses to consider the

individual in the context of the family.

Metaparadigm in Nursing
PERSON
ENVIRONMENT
HEALTH
NURSING
PERSON
 A holistic being “a holistic being who is
sentient, thinking, future-oriented, and past-
aware
ENVIRONMENT
 The environment completes the wholeness of
the individual. The individual has both an
internal and external environment.
◦ The internal environment combines the
physiological and pathophysiological aspects of the
individual and is constantly challenged by the
external environment.
◦ The external environment includes those factors
that impinge on and challenge the individual.
 Broadly, includes all the individual’s
experiences
ENVIRONMENT
 The environment as described by Levine (1973) was
adapted from the three levels of environment identified by
Bates (1967).
◦ The perceptual environment includes aspects of the world that
individuals are able to seize or interpret through the senses. The
individual “seeks, selects, and tests information from the
environment in the context of his [her] definition of himself
[herself], and so defends his [her] safety, his [her] identity, and in a
larger sense, his [her] purpose”
◦ The operational environment includes factors that may physically
affect individuals but are not directly perceived by them such as
radiation, microorganisms, and pollution.
◦ The conceptual environment includes the cultural patterns
characterized by spiritual existence and mediated by language,
thought, and history. Factors that affect behavior—such as norms,
values, and beliefs— are also part of the conceptual environment.
ENVIRONMENT
HEALTH
 Health is culturally determined: “[I]t is not an
entity, but rather a definition imparted by the
ethos and beliefs of the groups to which the
individual belongs”(personal communication,
February 21, 1995).
 Health is an individual response that may

change over time in response to new

situations, new life challenges, aging; or
social, political, economic, and spiritual
factors.
 Health is implied to mean unity and integrity.
HEALTH
 It is not merely the healing of an afflicted
part. It is rather a return to self-hood, where
the encroachment of the disability can be set
aside entirely, and the individual is free to
pursue once more his or her own interests
without constraint.
 The maintenance of the client’s unity and

integrity
NURSING
 A discipline rooted in the organic dependency
of the individual human being on his or her
relationship with others