For any discipline with a practice component, value priorities are a reflection of choices on what it means to be a member of the discipline. For the recipients of professional nursing services, ...values reflect owning individual priorities for what is most important in living health and quality of life. In the context of global healthcare, priority has been afforded to disciplinary practices whose values are consistent with those of normative, empirical science. This column begins a discussion of what values guide and ought to guide the discipline and practice of nursing from a nursing theoretical perspective.
Nursing as a human science focuses on life and health as humanly experienced. Intentionality is a philosophical idea of particular significance to nursing as a human science, particularly within ...Parse’s theory of human becoming and Watson’s theory of human caring. These two theorists’ interpretations of intentionality are explored in relation to their respective theories and the implications for research and practice. A persistent thread in nursing discourse positions nursing as a human science—that is, one that focuses on life and health as humanly experienced. In human science disciplines, human beings are viewed as the subjects of their own lives, rather than as mere objects or things, as is the case in the natural sciences. My purpose in this column is to explore intentionality as a philosophical idea of particular significance to theoretical accounts of nursing as a human science. Before beginning, it is important to note that not all nurse theorists whose works could be considered aligned with the human sciences explicitly address the notion of intentionality within their writings (see for instance, Newman, 1994; Rogers, 1970). However, the notion of intentionality is implied in, or at least, consistent with, their works and those of their disciples. As noted elsewhere (Pilkington, 2000), the word intentionality has been in use since medieval times and there are various definitions of the concept in the literature, reflecting different philosophical paradigms or worldviews. In this column, I explore the notion as it appears in two nursing perspectives, Parse’s (1981, 1998) theory of human becoming and Watson’s (1985, 1999, 2005) theory of human caring. Both of these theorists have spoken about how their theoretical thinking grew out of their own life experiences as well as through engaging with the world of ideas (Fuld Institute for Technology in Nursing Education, 1997a, 1997b). And so, I begin by identifying key theoretical influences that shaped their thinking about intentionality. In addition, I will explore
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.
Parse's research method informed the exploration of the phenomenon of taking life day-by-day as viewed through the conceptual lens of the human becoming theory. From the perspective of human ...becoming, taking life day-by-day is a universal lived experience of health and quality of life. The participants in this study were 10 men between 35 and 60 years who had experienced depression and were willing to share their lived world of taking life day-by-day. Three core concepts were explicated from the participants' dialogues, enduring with the burdensome, envisioning the possibles, and sure-unsure. The findings of this study represent a tapestry of the participants' experiences woven with the human becoming theory, this researcher's engagement with an exacting process of inquiry, and his personal journey into the landscape of the human becoming school of thought.
The discipline of nursing is experiencing the ever-present phenomenon of living with adversity or opposition. As a global nursing community, what are the possible ethical implications for global ...health in view of professional nursing practice and education? Professional nurses worldwide struggle with choosing and doing what is right while abiding with contexts or situations incarnated with conflict. With a global shortage of nursing faculty and practitioners, this column begins a nursing ethical discussion for pondering the need for community change. Ethical implications for the possibilities of faithfulness in adversity will be discussed from a human becoming nursing theoretical perspective.
Online education can be a wonderful teaching-learning experience for professors and students alike. This column shares excerpts from postings that students and a professor wrote during an online ...nursing theories course with the intention to illuminate selected essences, paradoxes, and processes of Parse's teaching-learning model and to portray living attentive presence and changing perspectives with online teaching-learning strategies. This reflection was initiated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the Institute of Human Becoming when two of the authors (Aquino-Russell and Maillard Strüby) were introduced to the human becoming teaching-learning model by nurse theorist Rosemarie Rizzo Parse.
This column addresses how nurse educators can provide the teaching-learning experiences for novice nurses to develop the leadership competence to effectively practice nursing in an extremely ...demanding healthcare environment. The authors delve into Mitchell and Bunkers’ use of the metaphor of an abyss to explore the lived experience of risking being with others in extremely intense interpersonal situations. Using reflection, students’ journal narratives affirm connections made among past experiences and the new knowledge gleaned from exploring and naming the phenomenon of the abyss. Several teaching-learning strategies are offered as ways for addressing the leadership issues related to dealing with intense relational experiences in nursing practice, including exploring nurse theorist Rosemarie Rizzo Parse’s essentials of leadership.
The purpose of this study was to describe the experience of persevering through a difficult time for patients, family members of patients, nurses, and allied health professionals during the severe ...acute respiratory syndrome outbreak. van Kaam’s phenomenological research method, with the human becoming theory as the theoretical perspective, was used to gather and analyse data from 63 participants who agreed to describe a situation that illuminated their experience of persevering through a difficult time (either online or using a voicemail system). Data gathering occurred in early April 2003 in the midst of the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Toronto, Canada. The finding was the structural definition, persevering through a difficult time is dispiriting trepidation arising with witnessing suffering. It is a smothering connectedness with sequestering protection as unsettling contentment emerges amid unburdening hope. It sheds light on what is important for preparing for possible future outbreaks of this and other infectious diseases.
The purpose of this study was to answer the research question, What is the structure of the lived experience of feeling unsure? The participants were 9 women at end-of-life. The Parse research ...method, a phenomenological- hermeneutic method, was used to discover the structure of feeling unsure. Through the process of extraction- synthesis three core concepts were identified: disquieting apprehensiveness, pressing on, and intimate sorrows. Thus, the lived experience of feeling unsure for these 9 women is disquieting apprehensiveness arising while pressing on with intimate sorrows. The structure provides knowledge about feeling unsure and its connection to health and quality of life. Feeling unsure will be discussed in relation to the principles and concepts of human becoming and in relation to how it can inform nursing practice and future research.
