Summary
Martha Rogers (1914–1994) was a professional nurse who devoted much of her life to researching and publishing theories and theses related to nursing techniques development. She designed the introductory theoretical foundations of nursing and advanced innovative views on patient perception and treatment. She is widely known in the medical area for her Theory of Unitary Human Beings. Martha had an innovative idea to transform the concept of nursing. Together with other professionals of the time, she changed the understanding of the medical field and how it functions. The significance and scope of her theory have considerably contributed to the patient’s care and the quality of life of medical personnel (Butcher, 2021). However, some aspects of the treatment approach still require further study in theory and practice.
The Objective of the Theory Development
The theory that Rogers was working on concentrates on how nurses see their work, the way they perceive their duties and assist patients. The Theory of Unitary Human Beings was supposed to demonstrate that the environment and persons’ interactions with it affect them in multiple diverse ways, creating a holistic unitary system. Patients primarily respond according to their environment and highly depend on its specific patterns. The environment has a direct impact on health and wellbeing (Maki & DeVon, 2018). In the right circumstances, it positively contributes to the creation of conditions in which the patient and other people live and interact in harmony.
The Introduction into the Theory
Rogers’ theory states that the person and the environment are considered to be related energy fields. Each environmental domain is individually specific to each human energy field. Rogers confirmed these two concepts constantly change, influencing each other. The energy field of a person allows him to interact with the environment and shift in intensity, density, and degree. Medical staff is supposed to analyze and adjust all the circumstances and help drive positive transformation. A patient care, in this case, focuses on human interaction and goes far beyond the classic understanding of medicine. Nurses are encouraged to use both traditional treatment methods and bioenergetics. Most of the strategies are non-tactile and are aimed solely at maintaining a proper psycho-emotional state of the patient. The theory may include techniques such as meditation, color therapy, music, and other non-surgical and procedural procedures (Maki & DeVon ,2018). It can be a valid addition to traditional medicine to calm the patient.
The Theory Principles
Rogers’ theory is known as the science of individuals. Its main principles include the following:
- Nursing is both a science and an art; the uniqueness of nursing, like any other science, lies in studying and researching the phenomenon
- Nurses’ longstanding concern for people and the world they live in is a natural precursor to an organized abstract system that embraces people and their environment.
- The irreducible nature of individuals is greater than the sum of the parts.
- The integrality of people and environments that coordinate with the multidimensional universe of open systems points to the identity of nursing as a science.
- The purpose of nursing is to promote the health and well-being of all people, wherever they are.
- The science of a unitary person is based on the idea that “man and the environment are energy fields”, which are characterized by “four-dimensionality” – “a non-linear area without spatial or temporal attributes” (Malinski, 2018).
Despite the amount of scientific background, a large number of studies, and consistent analyses, the theory still demands comprehensive interrogation and additional exploitation by the specialists.
The Non-Contact Massage as an Example of Technique
Non-contact massage is usually taught and performed in a sequence of four steps. The procedure is sometimes called the yoga of the mind and is recommended in case of severe stress and inner imbalance. To prepare for the session, the healer must enter an intuitive state of consciousness in which he is relaxed and calm. The healer places his hands 2-4 inches away from the patient’s body and slowly scans the patient from head to toe, intuitively looking for areas of imbalance in the energy field. Painful areas, places of accumulated tension or inflammation are perceived by the hands in the form of tingling, increased pressure or pulsation, heat, or cold. These sensations indicate a blockage or excess energy. Then the movements of the hands become more active, and the healer makes wide circles to “distribute” the energy (Malinski, 2018). It is followed by the next step, modulation, which consists in moving the subtle healing energy from the healer to the patient or changing the direction of the flow of the patient’s energy.
The Attitude to Massage as a Procedure
The non-contact massage session ends when the healer intuitively feels that the patient’s energies have come into balance. As a rule, the procedure lasts five to fifteen minutes after the start of the session. Proponents of the method claim that almost everything can be achieved with it. From calming a crying baby and relieving a headache to lowering blood pressure and increasing hemoglobin levels. To the delight of adherents of a holistic worldview, this technique does not invade the human body, although this statement seems very doubtful to many. Using Rogers’ conceptual model of seeing people as an energy field, a generation of students have studied clairvoyance, precognition, oriental mysticism, and out-of-body experiences in addition to non-contact massage (Phillips, 2019). At the moment, the method is still distrusted due to the lack of data and practical research.
The Outcomes for the Medical Field
Early in the history of nursing, there was little formal knowledge about nursing. Nursing education has evolved, and the categorization of knowledge has led to the development of nursing theory that helps nurses evaluate increasingly stressful situations for clients. Nursing theory is a creative and rigorous structuring of ideas that project a preliminary, complex, and systematic view of phenomena. Through systems research, nurses gather the knowledge needed to detect cases. The theory of the unitary person has a great influence on the whole treatment process. It severely changed the approach to the human body, created a special connection between patient and staff, and took the patient experience to the next level. The theory implies the well-being of the patients and medical staff, which is frequently operating under severe conditions and much pressure. Constant overwork, nervous tension, and ongoing stress negatively affect the well-being and actions of nurses, which can be transmitted to patients. The theory of the unitary person takes into account all aspects and energies that affect the patient, including the medical staff (Phillips, 2019). It helps achieve a more effective treatment process and fulfillment for both parties.
References
Butcher, H. K. (2021). Unitariology: Theories and concepts derived from Rogers’ science of unitary human beings.Iowa Pressbooks. Web.
Maki, K. A., & DeVon, H. A. (2018). A nursing theory-guided framework for genetic and epigenetic research. Nursing inquiry, 25(3). e12238. Web.
Malinski, V. (2018). The importance of a nursing theoretical framework for nursing practice: Rogers’ science of unitary human beings and Barrett’s theory of knowing participation in change as exemplars. Cultura Del Cuidado, 15(2), 6–13. Web.
Phillips, J. R. (2019). Unitariology and the changing frontiers of the science of unitary human beings.Nursing Science Quarterly, 32(3), 207–213. Web.