28 UNIT I Nursing’s Perspective: Past, Present, and Future

TABLE 2-1
Chronology of Nursing Theory Development

Date Theorist Theory/Publications

1859 Florence Nightingale Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not

1952 Hildegard Peplau Interpersonal Relations in Nursing

1964 Basic Principles of Patient Counseling

1992 Interpersonal relations: A theoretical framework for application in

nursing practice (in Nursing Science Quarterly)

1955 Virginia Henderson (with B. Harmer) Textbook for the Principles and Practice of Nursing

1966 The Nature of Nursing: A Definition and Its Implication for Practice,
Research and Education

1991 The Nature of Nursing: Reflections after 20 Years

1960, 1968, 1973 Faye Abdelleh (with Beland, Martin, and Matheney) Patient-Centered Approaches to Care

1961, 1990 Ida Jean Orlando (Pelletier) The Dynamic Nurse-Patient Relationship

1964 Ernestine Wiedenbach Clinical Nursing: A Helping Art

1966, 1971 Joyce Travelbee Interpersonal Aspects of Nursing

1969, 1973 Myra Levine Introduction to Clinical Nursing

1989 The four conservation principles: Twenty years later

1991 The conservation principles: A model for health

1970 Martha Rogers An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing

1980 Nursing: A science of unitary man

1989 Nursing: A science of unitary human beings

1971 Imogene King Toward a Theory of Nursing: General Concepts of Human Behavior

1981 A theory for nursing: Systems, concepts and process

1989 King’s general systems framework and theory

1971, 1980, 1988, 1991 Dorothea Orem Nursing Concepts of Practice

1976 Dorothy Johnson Behavioral Systems and Nursing

1980 The behavioral systems model for nursing

1976, 1984 Callista Roy Introduction to Nursing: An Adaptation Model

1980 The Roy Adaptation Model

1987 Theory Construction in Nursing: An Adaptation Model

1991 The Roy Adaptation Model: The Definitive Statement

1976 Josephine Paterson & Humanistic Nursing

Loretta Zderad

1978 Madeline Leininger Transcultural Nursing, Concepts, Theories and Practice

(continues)
 CHAPTER 2 Theoretical Foundations of Nursing 29

TABLE 2-1 (continued)

Chronology of Nursing Theory Development

Date Theorist Theory/Publications

1980 Caring: A Central Focus of Nursing

1988 Leininger’s Theory of Nursing: Culture Care Diversity and Universality

1979 Jean Watson Nursing: The Philosophy and Science of Caring

1985 Nursing: Human Science and Human Care

1988 New dimensions of human caring theory

1989 Watson’s philosophy and theory of human caring in nursing

1979 Margaret Newman Theory Development in Nursing

1983 Newman’s health theory

1986 Health as Expanding Consciousness

1980 Betty Neuman The Betty Neuman health care systems model: A total person approach
to patient problems

1982, 1989 The Neuman Systems Model

1981, 1989 Rosemarie Parse Man-Living-Health: A Theory of Nursing

1983 Joyce Fitzpatrick Fitzpatrick’s rhythm model: Analysis for nursing science

1984 Patricia Benner From Novice to Expert: Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice

1989 The Primacy of Caring: Stress and Coping in Health and Illness

human being. “Each discipline singles out certain phe-
nomena with which it will deal in a unique manner”
(Fawcett, 1989, p. 5). The field of biology (the study of
living organisms) has defined limits and boundaries that
do not extend into psychology. Similarly, psychology
(which is concerned with the behavior of individuals)
does not extend its concerns into the domain of sociol-
ogy, which has as its main focus the social behavior of
human beings.
The broadly identified concerns of a discipline are
defined in its metaparadigm. The metaparadigm con-
cepts provide the boundaries and limitations of a disci-
pline, identify the common viewpoint that all members
of a discipline share, and help to focus the activities of
the members of that discipline. Disciplines are distin-
guished from each other by differing metaparadigm
concepts. Most metaparadigms consist of several major
concepts.
Initial consensus on the metaparadigm concepts in
nursing was achieved in 1984. According to Fawcett
(1984), the major concepts that provide structure to the
domain of nursing are person, environment, health, and
nursing. These metaparadigm elements name the over-
all areas of concern for the nursing discipline. Each
nursing theory presents a slightly different view of the
metaparadigm concepts. Refer to the section entitled
“Selected Nursing Theories” for a discussion of how
various theorists address and link the metaparadigm
concepts.
Consider for a moment the practice of nursing by a
school nurse, an emergency room nurse, and a psychi-
atric nurse. What is the unifying thread among these var-
ious nurses? Although each nurse’s practice is obviously
different, they all consider their work as part of the pro-
fession of nursing because all share the same major con-
cerns. Regardless of the setting or the type of client
involved, each nurse is concerned with person, environ-
ment, health, and nursing. Nursing’s metaparadigm is
shared by all nurses despite differences in their individ-
ual practices.
How is nursing’s metaparadigm different from that
of other helping professions? The metaparadigm of
medicine focuses on pathophysiology and the curing of
disease. Nursing’s metaparadigm is broader and focuses
on the person, health, and the environment. Consider a
physician’s and a nurse’s view of a client who is newly
diagnosed with diabetes. The physician is concerned
with reducing the client’s abnormal blood glucose val-
ues to normal levels, if possible. The physician pre-
scribes medications, an exercise regime, and nutritional
counseling in an effort to control blood sugar levels. In
dealing with the same client situation, the nurse is