Unitary Human Beings an Examination

Unitary Human Beings

An Examination and Explication of a Grand Nursing Theory: Roger's Science of Unitary Human Beings

Despite the decades that have passed since her theory was first formulated, Martha E. Roger's Science of Unitary Human Beings remains a highly relevant and even necessary theoretical framework and way of approaching nursing today. Her continued basic yet fervent premises throughout her various publications that have expounded or touched upon her theory is that nursing knowledge must be advanced before it is applied, and that nursing needs to view human beings from its own theoretical perspective rather than through the lenses of other non-nursing professions and theoretical frameworks (Malinski 2008). Rogers also astutely noted the changes to healthcare needs and delivery with the increased automation of most industries, ad forward-thinking theory continues to be heralded as a major breakthrough in the profession, practice, and scholarship of nursing (Ring 2009).

The scope of Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings is difficult to overstate; as the title of the theory suggests, it is considered by many (including its developer) to be no less than a new science underlying the field of nursing (Kim 2008; Malinski 2008; Butcher 2008). This means that this grand theory necessarily and essentially touches on all aspects of knowledge, from the conducting of research and experimentation to the direct application of developing knowledge in providing nursing care (and in that order) to the way patients and indeed human beings in general should be perceived (Farren 2009). With this being the case, the Science of Unitary Human Beings encompasses all aspects of nursing.

Theory Context

Essentially, there are four metaparadigm concepts within Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings, and into which truly everything that could affect nursing and health is divided. The two primary metaparadigm concepts are the person (or human being) and the environment. Each of these, according to Rogers, is an irreducible and pandimensional energy field identified by a pattern (Masters 2005). Though this sound complex, and indeed provides for a very rich understanding of these concepts, what this essentially means in practice is that both people and the environment cannot be understood when subdivided (they are irreducible), with influential factors (energy) on themselves and each other. The understanding of patterns in these concepts means that, rather than existing in discrete chunks, there is a person- or environment-wide pattern that adjusts as a whole.

This ties these concepts together with the other metaparadigms in the Science of Unitary Human beings, health and nursing. Health is viewed as a continuum (along with illness), and nursing seeks to promote an interaction of the human and environmental energy fields in a way that promotes the integrity of the human field and attempts to maximize potential health in the individual (Masters 2005). In this way, the four metaparadigm concepts within the Science of Unitary Human Beings are inextricably interrelated, and this is explicitly accounted for in the definitions of these metaparadigm concepts -- human and environmental energy fields have a constant relationship of influence, and nursing and health attempt to influence this relationship.

The metaparadigm concepts of the theory also demonstrate its philosophical underpinnings, most essentially the view of human beings that the theory makes explicit. The term "irreducible" is especially important in this philosophy; it means that human problems and environmental factors cannot be treated with a singular focus, but rather that the entire energy field of the person and the environment must be seen as whole (Masters 2005). While this might not have a direct impact on treatment in many cases, the overall perspective definitely leads to different treatment patterns, and provides a very different understanding for nursing than the "traditional" medical perspective. The Science of Unitary Human Beings demands that people and situations be handled holistically, and this is essentially a philosophical (rather than an initially empirical) view.

There are other important philosophical considerations addressed by Rogers' theory that also directly though less explicitly relate to the practice and study of nursing. Key amongst these is the concept of time that Rogers developed, which asserts that neither measured nor experienced time has any real meaning outside of the constant evolution of the life-process (Ring 2009). This quite visibly relates to the concepts that human beings and environments have no discrete parts to which they can be reduced, but instead that everything can be understood only in its influence of the whole. This concept of interconnectedness and viewing systems as a whole is the primary philosophical basis of the entire theory.

The worldview of the Science of Unitary Human Beings can be best understood in two primary ways. There is the worldview that is put forward by the theory, which can be easily extrapolated from the philosophy -- everything is considered affective of health in that the environment contains anything and everything that is not a human being, and nursing is an attempt to align human and environmental energy field patterns in a way that maximizes health (Masters 2005). There is also the worldview from which the theory stems, namely that the field of nursing has been too long dominated by other theories and methods of obtaining and applying knowledge (Butcher 2008). That is, in developing the Science of Unitary Human Beings, Rogers was addressing a perceived need for nursing to develop as a science, which she viewed as a necessary step before the application of nursing knowledge could be truly effective (Malinski 2008). These two understandings of the worldview of the Science of Unitary Human Beings are both highly appropriate to the theory itself, which addresses problems holistically and in a novel and comprehensive fashion.

A conceptual model of the Science of Unitary Human Beings is perhaps best understood by observing the theoretical framework at work in an applied situation of nursing. In one case study that examined the theory and its effects, a woman with breast cancer that was responding well to treatment confided in her nurse that she was experiencing feelings of depression, anger, and fatigue that had heretofore gone unannounced to other medical professionals and even her family (Farren 2009). Rather than approaching these issues as something related to but separate from the patient's breast cancer, the perspective of the Science of Unitary Human Beings incorporated these elements as well as the environmental aspects of the woman's home life in approaching diagnosis and treatment (Farren 2009).

Theory Content

Some of the smaller concepts that are still quite essential in an understanding of Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings as defined by Kim (2008) are the energy field, patterns, pandimensionality, and openness. Of these, the pandimensionality of the human and environmental energy fields is perhaps the most important in relation to the philosophical underpinnings of the theory. The meaning is relatively straightforward -- in saying that human beings and the environment are pandimensional, Rogers is asserting that they each have many different (countless, even) facets, which relates to the idea of their interconnectivity and existence as holistic and irreducible systems (Masters 2005; Malinski 2008). The idea of the pattern refers to the notion that these systems align in certain ways, and that no part can be altered without affecting the system -- or conversely, it is impossible to promote health in the system by trying to treat or effect a single element.

These concepts are all highly and explicitly interrelated within the Science of Unitary Human Beings, with the energy fields exhibiting the pandimensionality and arranging themselves in patterns of adjustment, response, and change (Masters 2005). The openness of both these energy fields in that they are constantly affected and altered by each other also relates to the idea of the specific patterns that they develop, and the concept of the energy fields themselves is central to an understanding of the metaparadigm concepts of human beings and the environment (Masters 2005; Farren 2009).

At the time when the theory was in its infant stages, the propositions of Rogers' Science of Unitary human beings were rather revolutionary. Essentially, her theory proposed that, at the time (the early 1960s), there was not a comprehensive science of nursing that could be seen as independent form other medical sciences, yet there was a definite difference in the expectations of nursing duties and the care they provided. Furthermore, Rogers asserted that such a science would need to be developed and advanced before nursing practice itself would also be able to progress and advance (Malinski 2008). The other propositions of the Science of Unitary Human Beings flow either directly or indirectly from attempts (through the development of this theory) to correct this situation. The metaparadigm and other concepts inherent to the Science of Unitary Human Beings are relatively unique to the theory, and were also somewhat revolutionary propositions when they first developed -- though they have become more commonplace (Butcher 2008).

Just as the propositions and concepts all have a highly interrelated and even self-derivative nature -- in fact, because of this -- there is a high degree of consistency within the theory, both in practice and in the abstract. The holistic view of the human being (i.e. The patient) and the environment is in some ways an echo of the holistic nature of the theory itself, which quite consciously and explicitly attempted to develop a theory appropriate to all aspects and situations of nursing. Because the Science of Unitary Human Beings was developed essentially from the ground up in such a conscious and comprehensive manner, it would be practically impossible for internal inconsistencies to exist.

Theoretical Significance

Just as the scope of Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings is difficult to overstate, it is equally difficult to overestimate the impact that this theory has had on the field of nursing. Its contributions to both nursing practice and scholarship have been enormous, and as the theory continues to evolve and develop under the guidance of new scholars and practitioners its significance only grows (Butcher 2008). Rogers was not the first to assert the need for an independent nursing science, of course, nor is she either the earliest or the most recent to attempt developing such a theory, but her concepts in the field of nursing practice and research have found a great deal of resonance in subsequent nursing students and teachers -- as well as with nurses themselves, of course -- to the point that many refer not even explicitly to the Science of Unitary Human Beings, but to "Rogerian" science.

This, however, is just the measure of the theory's significance, and does not really elucidate the specific theoretical significance in the study and practice of nursing. The case study briefly outline above clearly demonstrates the fundamental perspective shift that this theory demands of practicing nurses, which is certainly a significant area of impact (Farren 2009). In the field of scholarship, this perspective can also be seen to apply, and the basic metaparadigm concepts of the Science of Unitary Human Beings has been used to derive certain methods and measures by which the body of knowledge in nursing as a specific and distinct field of medicine can be added to objectively and independently (Malinski 2008).

The changes in the practice of the nursing profession necessarily create changes in patient care. One of the most essential and pervasive of these is the standardization of nursing language across disciplines, which not only is a measure and method for creating a unique and definitive science and knowledge base that is "nursing" and not some other field of science or knowledge, but also allows for easier and more complete communication between the patient and the nurse, as well among nurses and between nurses and other care providers (Farren 2009). The general perspective of the Science of Unitary Human Beings also fundamentally affects the way care is provided, as no disease or condition can ever be effectively treated (according to the tenets of the theory) as an isolated or discrete phenomenon, but rather the entire person or energy field must be treated.

This can be extrapolated quite easily and applied to global communities and systems. The metaparadigm of the environment explicitly contains anything and everything that is not a specified human beings, and health is seen as a product of the interactions between the human energy field and the environmental energy field -- that is, with everything else in the world (Masters 2005). Obviously, the nurse cannot practically speaking change global issues in order to promote health, but an understanding of the environmental forces at work -- including issues in the global community and economy -- must be taken into consideration when approaching the provision of care to patients. In addition, the global system is perhaps best viewed with the same sort of holistic framework that human beings and the environment are addressed within the Science of Unitary Human Beings.