Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings Explained

Introduction

Despite the decades that have passed since her theory was first formulated, Martha E. Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings remains a highly relevant and even necessary theoretical framework for approaching nursing today. Her consistent and fervent premise across her various publications 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 brought about by the increased automation of most industries, and her 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 entire field of nursing (Kim, 2008; Malinski, 2008; Butcher, 2008). This means that the 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, as well as the way patients and human beings in general should be perceived (Farren, 2009). The Science of Unitary Human Beings thus encompasses all aspects of nursing.

Theory Context

Essentially, there are four metaparadigm concepts within Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings, into which 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 sounds complex — and indeed provides for a very rich understanding of these concepts — what it essentially means in practice is that both people and the environment cannot be understood when subdivided (they are irreducible), with influential factors (energy) acting on themselves and each other. Understanding patterns within 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 the individual's health potential (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 their definitions — human and environmental energy fields have a constant relationship of mutual influence, and nursing and health attempt to shape that 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 a whole (Masters, 2005). While this might not have a direct impact on treatment in every case, the overall perspective leads to different treatment patterns and provides a fundamentally different understanding for nursing than the traditional medical perspective. The Science of Unitary Human Beings demands that people and situations be handled holistically, which is essentially a philosophical rather than an initially empirical position.

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 among 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 clearly 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 through its influence on the whole. This concept of interconnectedness — 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 understood in two primary ways. First, there is the worldview put forward by the theory itself, which can be easily extrapolated from its philosophy: everything is considered relevant to 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). Second, there is the worldview from which the theory stems — namely, that the field of nursing had been too long dominated by other theories and methods of obtaining and applying knowledge (Butcher, 2008). In developing the Science of Unitary Human Beings, Rogers was addressing a perceived need for nursing to develop as an independent science, which she viewed as a necessary step before nursing knowledge could be truly effective in practice (Malinski, 2008). Both of these understandings of the theory's worldview are highly appropriate, as the theory addresses problems holistically and in a novel, 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 nursing situation. 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 emotional elements as well as the environmental aspects of the woman's home life when approaching diagnosis and treatment (Farren, 2009).

Theory Content

Some of the smaller concepts that are still quite essential to 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 theory's philosophical underpinnings. The meaning is relatively straightforward: in asserting that human beings and the environment are pandimensional, Rogers is saying that they each have many different — even countless — facets, which relates to the idea of their interconnectivity and existence as holistic, 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 as a whole — conversely, it is impossible to promote health by trying to treat or affect a single element in isolation.

These concepts are all highly and explicitly interrelated within the Science of Unitary Human Beings, with the energy fields exhibiting pandimensionality and arranging themselves in patterns of adjustment, response, and change (Masters, 2005). The openness of both energy fields — in that they are constantly affected and altered by each other — also relates to the specific patterns 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 the theory was in its early stages, the propositions of Rogers' Science of Unitary Human Beings were rather revolutionary. Her theory proposed that, in the early 1960s, there was no comprehensive science of nursing that could be seen as independent from other medical sciences, yet there was a definite difference between the expectations of nursing duties and the care nurses provided. Furthermore, Rogers asserted that such a science would need to be developed and advanced before nursing practice itself could also progress (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 first developed, though they have since become more commonplace (Butcher, 2008).

Just as the propositions and concepts all have a highly interrelated and even self-derivative nature — and indeed, 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 framework 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.

Conclusion

The Science of Unitary Human Beings has undergone much refinement and evolution since it was first introduced to the world by Martha E. Rogers in the 1960s. Its worldview makes it ideally suited to the changing demands and practices of the medical and nursing worlds. As such, this grand theory of nursing promises to remain relevant for many years to come.