Search

Power in positions of authority and responsibility may be manifested in myriad ways in management positions, with all businesses and disciplines, including the discipline of nursing. From the nursing disciplinary theoretical perspective of humanbecoming, this column begins a discussion regarding the obligations of healthcare disciplines to address the ethical questions of what should and ought members of healthcare disciplines be doing to enhance the quality and integrity for healthcare recipients’ experiences. Exercising power judiciously and with transparency will be defined and emphasized as important for members of healthcare disciplines, for preserving and protecting the legacy of future healthcare leaders.

In this column, the author describes the power of listening. There are three engaging listening modalities that are explored that form a foundation for exploring the power and possibility in listening: living true presence, participating in the council process; and engaging in strategic questioning. Several strategic questions are raised to explore the possibility of integrating these listening modalities into the nursing academy.

The purpose of this column is to present a uniquely conceived nursing phenomenon inspired by an artform, to discuss its relevance for nursing knowledge development in light of a preliminary review of literature and the creative conceptualization process, and to suggest an appropriate mode for further inquiry.

This column focuses on ideas concerning leaders and leadership. The author proposes that leadership is about showing up and participating with others in doing something. “Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership” by Richard Stengel is explored in light of selected philosophical writings, literature on nursing leadership, and nurse theorist Rosemarie Rizzo Parse's humanbecoming leading-following model. Teaching-learning questions are then posed to stimulate further reflection on the lessons of leadership.

This column illuminates nursing practice through two unique theoretical perspectives: Peplau's theory of interpersonal relations and Parse's theory of humanbecoming. Processes of each practice method will be explicated as each is related to a practice scenario. The key differences between Peplau's and Parse's practice methodologies are identified. Nursing is a unique, evolving, everchanging profession for which theory can be used as a guide for practice. This column demonstrates two of these unique theories. Whether through health promotion or quality of life from the person's perspective, theory provides meaning in nursing practice and in everyday life.

This article is the report of the humanbecoming hermeneutic method study on The Wizard of Oz (the book, the screenpla and the motion picture). The study unfolded in part as a dialogue between the delegates of the International Consortium Parse Scholars' November 2006 conference, Humanbecoming and Children's Literature, answering the question What wisdom, compassion, and courage as humanly lived? Emergent meanings were uncovered that enhanced knowledge an understanding of wisdom, compassion, and courage in general and expanded the humanbecoming school of thought.

The concept of accountability is a concept closely aligned with public trust and confidence with a healthcare discipline. It is of vital importance to the discipline of nursing to define and examine the obligations and duties of professional nurse. The term is referred to and often defined through international and national professional codes of nursing and in standards of nursing practice documents. This column will begin exploration of the concept with offering a definition from a humanbecoming perspective.

Ninety-three retrievable studies guided by the human becoming theory between 1985 and 2006, are reviewed. A summary of the studies is tabulated according to the two basic human becoming research methods, the human becoming applied research method, and other qualitative research methods using human becoming as the frame of reference. The authors provide an overview of the studies and the human becoming research methods and further illuminate the findings of studies reviewed under four major themes that describe the phenomena studied.

Nurses working on an orthopedic surgery and rheumatology unit in a large teaching hospital in Canada participated in a 24-month research project to evaluate what happens when nurses are provided 20% of their time for the purpose of learning and self-development. Half of the teaching-learning was aligned with the commitment of the organization to advance patient-centered care, and in particular patient-centered care guided by the nursing theory, human becoming. The other half was self-directed by nurse participants according to their learning interests and self-development priorities. The purpose of this column is to describe the teaching-learning and mentoring processes in which the nurses were engaged and to highlight the subsequent changes in nursing practice that have happened on the unit from the perspectives of nurse participants.

Tennessee Williams’ play, The Glass Menagerie, is interpreted through the lens of two different nursing theories, the Roy adaptation model and the human becoming theory. In the Roy adaptation model interpretation, adaptive levels of reality testing and stimuli that instigate withdrawal are explored, while in the human becoming theory interpretation, the themes of meaning, rhythmicity, and contranscendence are explicated.

Rules in games are fundamental to the ethics of practice. Rules provide a context or space where a game is defined and played. Throughout human life, games may be formalized with written and unwritten rules. Imaginations may be sparked in the creative structuring of new, informal games. Formal and informal rules can serve to provide direction for what may be viewed as decorum and appropriate behavior with professional groups. In this column, the author illuminates possible ethical meanings for rule-making and breaking with implications for nursing practice and education from a nursing theoretical perspective.

This column describes the process undertaken by a team of researchers, artists, and actors to create a research-based drama about living with dementia. Researchers had several studies, guided by the human becoming theory, about what life was like when living with dementia, and an additional study in progress about the lived experience of loss for daughters whose mothers were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers partnered with an experienced artistic director and playwright in order to craft a script and performance that could help others understand and see life with dementia in a new light. The crafting of the script was also informed by the experiences and insights of actors, healthcare professionals, and persons living with dementia. The play premiered before a group of 100 persons and families living with dementia and has since been performed approximately 40 times to hundreds of professionals and families. The evaluation of the play, at six of the performances, is presented in this column.

Fables are literary short stories intended to convey a moral maxim for some aspect of human living. Within the discipline of nursing, a fable is a medium by which stories and themes of humanly lived phenomena may be viewed in light of a particular philosophical lens of understanding. The fable offers possibilities for instruction through illuminating fictitious characters and offering notions for what a member of a discipline ought to do. In this article, the author shall present a fable and offer an interpretation from a human becoming perspective for what one ought to do in the discipline of nursing.

The purposes of this research, using the Parse method, were to discover the structure of sacrificing something important and to expand the theory of human becoming. The core concepts of relinquishing the cherished, shifting preferred options, and fortifying affiliations were discovered during the process of extraction-synthesis using synopses of dialogues from 10 church parishioners. The structure, sacrificing something important is relinquishing the cherished while shifting preferred options amid fortifying affiliations is the central finding of this study, adding to the theory of human becoming, stimulating further research, and informing nurses about this universal lived experience of health.

In this column, the author provides a general overview of selected theories derived from Rogerian nursing science. After a brief discussion of the Rogerian perspective, she highlights representative theories. She suggests that ongoing development of proposed theories has been relatively slow for two main reasons. First, scholars still use the 1970 book as a major reference. Unfortunately, despite her promise to do so, Rogers never updated the 1970 book and admitted on many occasions that it would more accurately reflect her refinement of her science if a major portion of the pages were torn out. Second, theories were often proposed by doctoral candidates who changed focus in their careers postdoctorate. Despite this, there is a fascinating body of theories in various stages of development for Rogerian scholars to pursue.

The well-publicized current shortage of nurses and nurse faculty to teach future generations of nurses intensifies the need to recruit and retain nurses engaged in professional practice. This suggests the importance of being concerned with the quality of the work and professional life of the practicing professional nurse. In this column, the stories of 10 new graduates of baccalaureate nursing programs are explored, illuminating experiences of novice nurses. Themes of the new graduates were identified. The themes are: learning a new culture, sharing a journey, being unsure with changing views, considering the possibilities, and being respected. It is hoped that this column will further the dialogue and promote projects among nurses to explore possibilities in originating new ways of being and becoming in nursing practice.

Grieving a loss is a profound and universal human experience. This phenomenological-hermeneutic study was an inquiry into the lived experience of grieving a loss. The nursing perspective was Parse’s human becoming theory. Participants were 10 elderly persons residing in a long-term care facility. The study finding specifies the structure of the lived experience of grieving a loss as aching solitude amid enduring cherished affiliations, as serene acquiescence arises with sorrowful curtailments. Findings are discussed in relation to the guiding theoretical perspective and related literature. Recommendations for additional research and insights for practice are presented.

Through advances in interpretive inquiry, diverse ways of knowing and experiencing reality are increasingly made explicit in nursing literature. Nevertheless, the privileges of empiricism continue alongside a lack of language to consider other realms of reality. In this column, Aboriginal ways of constituting health and reality are explored. Morley’s four categorizations of health belief systems provide a useful tool for understanding diverse worldviews. In contrast, Atleo drew on Nuu-chah-nulth origin stories to address the complexities and ambiguities of Aboriginal health beliefs. Approaches for bridging cultural differences are explored with a view toward inclusive healthcare and nursing practice.

From a human becoming perspective, hope is considered to be a universal lived experience, which arises and fades in the human-universe process. This article is a comparison of sixParse research method studies on the lived experience of hope from five countries: Japan, Taiwan, Sweden, Finland, and the United States. The goal was to explore the similarities and differences in the findings of a nine-country study on hope. While the structure of the experience of hope was similar, some differences are discussed that enhance nursing practice and guide further study.

The authors engage in a dialogue about the ontology, epistemology, and methodologies in research within their respective theoretical perspectives, the Roy adaptation model and the human becoming theory, insofar as these represent different paradigms in nursing science. In the discussion of ontology as the lens through which humans view their world, they articulate the primacy of ontology over methodology in shaping knowledge development.

What follows is an exploration of 18th and 19th century music of theWestern world through a nursing science lens, specifically that of the human becoming theory. This article was written while I was enrolled in a music history course, which afforded me the opportunity to explore music as musical expressions of life. Rooted in the human becoming philosophical perspective, which focuses on unitary human experience and the quality of human life, I discuss musical expressions of life with examples from various composers throughout the 18th and 19th century. This article concludes with a reflection on musical expressions and their contribution to the enhancement of the quality of human life, a focus of nursing from a human becoming perspective.

There have been reports of an absence or a lack of support for one another within the discipline of nursing. By establishing patterns of engagement, seasoned veterans connect with their novice colleagues to promote standards of excellence and scholarship. In order to provide the multidimensional benefits of a mentorship opportunity, a clear theoretical vision of mentoring is required. The theoretical perspective of human becoming provides a framework for mentors to establish gentle urgings with their mentees and thus provide for the growing of nurses as well as the discipline of nursing.

From this researcher’s perspective an essential component of rigorous inquiry is the ability of the researcher to provide a transparent accounting of his/her journey throughout the research process. In keeping with this belief this researcher’s personal reflections of, and insights gleaned from, his experience into the world of research in general, and the human becoming school of thought in particular, are presented. He offers personal insights into the lived experience of completing a Parsean study on the structure of taking life day-by-day as a universal lived experience of health. Throughout this research process a number of insights have been gleaned which include the importance of adequate preparation in conducting research, the role of the researcher, preparedness to work with uncertainty, and achieving authentic rigor.

This column seeks to contribute to the understanding of the concept of sacrifice and its significance to nursing through an extensive account of relevant literature from the disciplines of theology, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. The review uncovered that in sacrificing something of value, individuals anticipate connecting with families, groups, society, and deities. Knowledge of the phenomenon of sacrifice has importance for nurses who use the human becoming theory as a guide for practice as they participate with individuals who are struggling with relinquishing something of value, while hoping to strengthen connections with others.

Quality of life is a concern for people living with diagnoses of persistent mental illness. While some studies with this community of people have measured quality of life as an indicator of adjustment, little is known about the meaning of quality of life from the perspectives of these individuals themselves. The project described in this practice column explored the meaning of quality of life for a group of persons attending a community centre for persons with mental illness. Parse’s human becoming practice method was used to guide the group process with eight men who met weekly with a nurse for 75-90 minute sessions over 10 weeks. The nurse’s commitment to live true presence with the group enabled their expressions about life and the meanings of living with their particular struggles and joys, sufferings and hopes. Themes of quality of life for this group of persons are detailed in this column.

The purpose of this research study was to enhance understanding about quality of life from the perspective of women living with a gynecologic cancer. Parse’s human becoming theory provided the theoretical perspective and guided the descriptive exploratory methodology that was used. Participants were 14 women diagnosed with a gynecologic cancer. Through analysis-synthesis processes, four themes were identified, which provide the following unified description:Quality of life is treasuring loving expressions while affirming personal worth, as consoling immersions amid torment emerge with expanding fortitude for enduring. The findings suggest implications for quality care that honors persons’ experiences.

This column presents a new framework for researchers to consider as a guide when participating in the process of scholarly critique. The framework is aligned with the philosophical view of Gadamerian hermeneutics. The emerging framework, consistent with the human becoming school of thought, builds on ideas from literary theory, specifically reception or reader-response theory, and the human becoming hermeneutic method. Three processes— sketching the horizon of expectation, illuminating artistic disclosure, and enhancing the original with artform—guide reviewers to bring forth the contributions of the researcher and to enhance the researcher’s contribution with artform. The emerging framework will enable researchers to participate in interpretive discourse and to advance the understanding of a scholarly community.

Feeling very tired is a phenomenon experienced by all humans at some point in their life. As a means of more fully understanding the human experience of feeling very tired, this concept was explored with a group of 10 community dwelling individuals who had no expressed health concerns. The Parse research method was used to answer the research question, What is the structure of the lived experience of feeling very tired? The central finding of this study is the structure: The lived experience of feeling very tired is dissipated vigor arising with monotonous disquietude amid spirited cherished engagements . The structure was conceptually integrated with the human becoming theory as: feeling very tired is powering the languaging of valuing connecting-separating. The findings are discussed in relation to human becoming and future research.

This article compares three human becoming studies on feeling very tired. The studies were conducted by Dr. Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, Dr. Mary H. Huch and Dr. Debra A. Bournes, and Dr. Steven Baumann. The comparison is conducted through the lens of the following questions: What have we learned about feeling very tired from these studies? What are similarities in the three studies? What are differences in the three studies? And, what new questions can be posed concerning feeling very tired? Unique knowledge for nursing is explicated on feeling very tired as a universal lived experience of health.

Better ways of understanding and working with human diversity are needed in the healthcare and human service disciplines. Nursing, as the discipline that cares for whole persons throughout their lives and meets people where they are, is ideally suited to provide leadership to this effort. In this column, the author explores human diversity by explicating human existence as coexistence, with implications for nursing. The author locates his worldview within the human becoming school of thought. Human diversity and human existence as coexistence are explored within this context, with implications for nursing as a discipline identified. Ideas that are crucial in the explication of human existence as coexistence are difference, imagination, creativity, and wholeness.

The purpose of this research was to discover the structure of the lived experience of being listened to from the perspective of 10 older women receiving in-patient rehabilitation. The Parse research method was used to guide this study where music was used in the dialogical engagement process. The women told their stories and created melodies of being listened to with the researcher using her flute. The findings include three core concepts—an acknowledging engagement, gratifying contentment, and an unburdening respite. Findings extend the theory of human becoming, enhance understanding of the experience of being listened to, and affirm its value.

The purpose of this human becoming hermeneutic research was to explore the meaning of lingering presence. The emergent meanings were: (a) A lingering presence surfaces in the cherished remembered which changes moment to moment as new experiences arise in the now and shed different light on the was and will be; (b) a lingering presence is lived in private ways, yet with others in a different alone-togetherness; and (c) a lingering presence is living with the familiar-unfamiliar in the now moment, while moving beyond with different possibles. The findings are discussed in relation to how they contribute to nursing knowledge development.

This column presents a novel discussion of ethical assumptions culled from the philosophical assumptions and principles of Parse’s human becoming school of thought. Disciplinary opportunities for creating and using new language in nursing ethics are presented.

This column offers a guide for nurses to follow a different path. The human becoming theory offers nurses and persons living with violence an alternative to the traditional fix-it approach to health situations. The human becoming theory challenges nurses to break down their own barriers, face their own biases, and open themselves to be with others in true presence. The human becoming theory has enhanced practice for one nurse working with women living in a shelter for domestic violence. The nurse not only learned about the meaning of health and change with women, she was also challenged to live up to the expectations of the human becoming theory and that challenge helped clarify value priorities in her own life.

The purpose of this study was to uncover the meaning of the lived experience of feeling loved. The site of this study was a shelter-based parolee program. The framework that guided the study was Parse’s human becoming theory, and the method was Parse’s research methodology. The finding of this study is the lived experience of feeling loved is an unshakable presence arising with moments of uplifting delight amid bewildering trepidation. The findings integrated into the human becoming theory show the paradoxical and dialectic nature of feeling loved. Feeling loved is linked to living freedom, trust, and hope.

This article explores concept development from a human science perspective and uses concept inventing, a method described by Parse, for developing the concept of hope as inspired by the Taiwanese folk song“Mending a Torn Fish Net.” The synthesized definition is hope is resolute picturing of the possibles amid the restrictions-opportunities of communion-aloneness while creatively metamorphosing. This definition is explicitly connected to the three principles of Parse’s theory of human becoming. Reflections on research and practice are provided.

It is exciting to view the year 2000 as the beginning for a new century and a new millennium that can be based on a new resolve and a refreshing insight. In thinking and reflecting about what aspects of nursing and nursing knowledge development that should be the focus for formulating such a new resolve or a refreshing insight, pluralism comes to mind as one of the critical issues that is both important and troublesome. Nursing has pursued multiple paths to develop knowledge with different commitments to philosophies and epistemological orientations during the past three decades. The resulting pluralism is evident not only in philosophical orientations regarding human nature and nursing, but also in theories, scientific explanations, and methods of inquiry adopted in nursing science. During the past three decades we have put a great deal of our scientific effort into developing nursing knowledge in terms of (a) conceptualizing the key and essential phenomena of concern, (b) identifying the nature of nursing problems and different ways of solving such problems, (c) understanding fundamental human processes associated with health and illness through development of multiple theories, (d) identifying the impact of environment on human functioning and health, and (e) advancing technical supports that enhance human health. These efforts have resulted in truly pluralistic knowledge development in nursing in terms of theories, empirical findings, and practical approaches, along with differences in philosophical and value orientations. A rich array of scientific results has provided the foundation to move nursing practice to be grounded in scientific knowledge. On the other hand, multiple theories, conflicting findings, and competing approaches to patient care have created confusion as well as a heightened sense of separation and schism between science and practice in nursing. One of the most critical aspects of such pluralism is in regard to theories and conceptualizations about phenomena in the client domain. Client domain, identified as one of the four domains of nursing’s subject matter (Kim, 1987), refers to the key area of nursing’s concern for knowledge development. There has been a long-standing presumption that through the understanding and explanation about client phenomena, nursing could develop its approaches, that is, therapeutics and strategies of care regarding clients’problems. The conceptual works of early nurse scholars helped to shift nursing’s orientation from medicine and pathologies to human needs. In the ensuing decades, the relevance of these frameworks as a basis for the practice of nursing became apparent, and a series of grand theories concerned with the knowledge domain of the client were proposed and studied. Rogers’s (1970, 1992) science of unitary human beings, Roy’s (Roy & Andrews, 1997) adaptation model, Orem’s (1995) self-care model, Neuman’s (1995) systems model, and Parse’s (1998) theory of human becoming are the major grand frameworks in nursing that try to formulate and explain client domain phenomena from generalized conceptualizations of humanity and health. These and related nursing models can be categorized into six major types according to their views on humanity and health: (a) holistic processes as the modes through which humans coexist within their environment, (b) balance as the essential human characteristic that expresses human condition, (c) configuration of structural and functional aspects as an integrative basis for human functioning, (d) aggregation of parts as revealing states of the human condition, (e) experiencing as the basic form of human existence, and (f) meaning-making as the essential feature of human life. This categorization suggests that in nursing there is diversity in the way clients and client phenomena are conceptualized and that there is no generally endorsed unified perspective regarding humans. It would be quite premature to state that nursing has firmly established specific paradigms or schools of thought based on these differing conceptualizations of humans and grand theories. However, these grand theories persist as the bases for empirical work and research, middle-range theory development, nursing curricula, and Editor’s Note: Send abstracts, outlines, or query letters about ideas for this column to Marilyn M. Rawnsley, RN, DNSc, P.O. Box 2188, Flagler Beach, FL 32136; phone/fax: (904) 439-3406; e-mail: mrawnsley2@aol.com. Persons interested in being critical respondents should forward curriculum vitae and a statement indicating areas of expertise and interest.

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the human becoming school of thought in nursing by defining the teaching-learning process. From a human becoming perspective, teaching-learning is a process of engaging with others in coming to know. The teaching-learning process as a lived experience of engaging with others in coming to know involves the multidimensional processes of expanding imaginal margins, naming the new, going with content-process shifts, abiding with paradox, giving meaning, inviting dialogue, noticing the now, and growing story.

This study was conducted using an innovative mode of heuristic inquiry within the context of Newman’s theory of health as expanding consciousness. Twelve caregiving families of persons who were diagnosed with schizophrenia participated in the study. In accordance with Newman’s theory of health as praxis, the majority of the participants in the study recognized their patterns of the whole. As a result, they reported understanding and acceptance of their relative’s mental illness.

Smoking cessation has been identified as an important factor for health and quality of life in Korean society. This article explicates Korean adolescents' experiences of smoking cessation from the perspective of Parse's human becoming theory, as a prelude to conducting research. A nurse was truly present with individual students as they shared their experiences of trying to stop smoking. Interpreted through the principles and concepts of Parse's theory, the experience of quitting smoking is elucidated as a struggle of choosing one's value priorities amid the opportunities and limitations inherent in this decision, while moving with unique patterns of relating. Staying with the commitment to stop smoking is changing one's health and quality of life. The authors briefly discuss the implications of this perspective for nursing practice, and identify struggling to change as a phenomenon for future research.

The author shows through examples how quality of life is enhanced when the nurse lives the art of the human becoming theory through composing and playing music with persons and families. Also demonstrated is Parse's practice methodology as lived through music.

The purpose of this research was to ascertain the meaning of quality of life for persons living with Alzheimer's disease. The human becoming theory was the nursing perspective for this descriptive-exploratory study in which 25 people, designated as having mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, were asked to describe their quality of life. Findings showed that quality for these participants is a contentment with the remembered and now affiliations that arises amidst the tedium of the commonplace, as an easy-uneasy flow of transfiguring surfaces with liberating possibilities and confining constraints, while desiring cherished intimacies yields with inevitable distancing in the vicissitudes of life, as contemplating the ambiguity of the possibles emerges with yearning for successes in the moment.Implications for further research and practice are also discussed.

With rapid changes in science, technology, management, and economic planning, new challenges confront nursing. The author specifies some of the ramifications related to changes in the health care delivery system in general and in nursing in particular. The human becoming theory is discussed as a guide to nursing practice and research and is specified as a way to fortify nursing's identity. Some challenges for those living and learning the theory in practice and research are also discussed.