J Nurs Acad Soc.  1979 Dec;9(2):49-62.

A Literary Review of Human Being by Nursing Aspects: As the Theory Development in Nursing

• Lee KJ

Abstract

A review of this literature and discussions reveal a development of ideas concerning the elements of nursing models. The elements of a nursing model are the nurses view of the human being, nursing's goal, and nursing activities. It has long been recognized that human beings, at one time or another, require nursing care. Varieties of literature were reviewed in regard to the human being as recipient of nursing care through the theory development in nursing. Florence Nightingale initiated the modern era of nursing and described more clearly man as the recipient of nursing care. She looked at man as responding to the laws of nature whether the person was healthy or sick. Henderson added to Nightingale's concept of man, the recipient of nursing care by emphasizing that man is a whole, complete, and independent being. Her view is further specified by her enumeration of the activities the human being must perform. Johnson has developed a very comprehensive view of man as the recipient of nursing care. Man is a behavioral system which has a tendency to achieve and maintain stability in patterns of functioning. Like Nightingale, Johnson sees that similar patterns occur in both health and illness. Johnson postulates that the whole behavioral system of the human is composed of eight subsystems: affiliative, achievement, aggressive, dependency, eliminative, ingestive, restorative, sexual. Roger's main contribution to the development of nursing models was her emphasis upon unitary man. She pointed out that man is a unified whole, possessing his own integrity and manifesting characteristics that "are more than and different from the sum of his parts " Rogers focuses on the life processes of the human and points out that these processes have the following characteristics. Wholeness, openness, unidirectionality, pattern and organization, sentence, and thought. According to Roy, man is a biopsychosocial being in constant interaction with a changing environment. To cope with this changing environment, man has certain innate and acquired mechanisms. Man's ability to respond positively or to adapt, depends upon the degree of the change taking place and the state of the person coping with the change. When she analyzes man as an adaptive organism she further describes man as being composed of four adaptive modes: physiological needs, self-concept, role function, and interdependence. Based on the literary review through the theory development in nursing, general approach by a unified nursing model to a view of the recipient of nursing care may be stated as follows: Man is a unified whole composed of subsystems with a flexible and normal line of defense; his internal regulating mechanisms help him to cope with a changing environment; he functions by the principles of homeodynamics.

MeSH Terms

Humans*
Jurisprudence
Models, Nursing
Nursing Care
Nursing*