INSTITUTE OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH SCIENCE

COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF NURSING

5/9/21 Unitary and Irreducible Human Beings 1

 MARTHA E.
ROGERS

The Science Of Unitary

and Irreducible Human
Being
 G.6 MEMBERS

1. BIRTUKAN A.
2. EMEBET L.
3. ESTIFANOS B.
4. MUHABAW R.
5. NIGUS A.
6. ZEKARYAS M.
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 PRESENTATION OUTLINE
 Introduction
 Publication of Martha rogers
 Introduction of a theory
 Rogers theory and nursing metaparadigm
 Application of roger’s theory in nursing
 Strength
 Weakness
 Critique
 Summary and conclusion
 References
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 OBJECTIVE

•At the end of this session the students will able to:-
Understand the philosophical bases of Martha Roger’s
theory
Describes major assumption of the theorist
Understand the application of the theory in nursing
community
Discuss strength and weakness of the theory
Criticize the theory
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 INTRODUCTION

• Born :May 12, 1914, Dallas, Texas, USA

• Diploma : Knoxville General Hospital School of
Nursing(1936)
• Graduation in Public Health Nursing : George Peabody
College, 1937
• MA :Teachers college, Columbia university, New York,
1945
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CONT’D…………………….
• MPH :Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1952

• Doctorate in nursing :Johns Hopkins University,

Baltimore, 1954
• Position: Professor at Division of Nursing,
New York University and Consultant, Speaker

• Died : March 13 , 1994

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 PUBLICATIONS OF MARTHA ROGERS

• Theoretical basis of nursing (Rogers 1970)

• Nursing science and art :a prospective (Rogers 1988)

• Nursing :science of unitary, irreducible, human beings (Rogers

1990)
• Vision of space based nursing (Rogers 1990)

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INTRODUCTION OF THEORY

• The Science of started as an abstract theory that was

synthesized from theories of numerous sciences; therefore,
it was deductively derived.

• From all these theories, and from her personal study of

nature, Rogers (1970) developed her original Theory of
Unitary Man.
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CONT’D………………..

• She continuously refined and elaborated her theory, which

she retitled Science of Unitary Humans (Rogers, 1990)
and finally, shortly before her death, the Science of
Unitary and Irreducible Human Beings (Rogers, 1994).

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 CONT’D……………..
• The belief of the coexistence of the human and
the environment has greatly influenced the
process of change toward better health.
• In short, a patient can’t be separated from his or
her environment when addressing health and
treatment.
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• This view lead and opened Martha E. Rogers‘ theory,
known as the “Science of Unitary and irreducible
Human Beings,” which allowed nursing to be considered
one of the scientific disciplines.
• Rogers repeatedly stated that she did not create a
"theory" but rather an abstract system, a science, from
which many theories may be derived.

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CONT’D……………

• The science of unitary human beings comprises of five

assumption, four major concepts and three major
principles
• Major concepts are : Energy field, openness,
pattern, and pan dimensionality
• Major principles include resonancy , helicy and
integrity. It is also known as homeodynamic
principles.
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 Assumptions
• Human being is considered as united
wholeness whole
• A person and his environment are
openness continuously exchanging energy
with each other
• The life process of human being
Unidirectionality evolves irreversibly and
unidirectional
Pattern and • i.e from birth
• Pattern to death
identifies individuals and
organizatio reflects their innovative wholeness.
n • Humans are the only organisms able
Sentence and to think, imagine, have language and
thought emotions
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 Energy field

Pan-
Major
dimensionality Concepts Openness

Pattern

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 Energy field
• It is inevitable part of life. Human and environment both
have energy field which is open i.e. energy can freely
flow between human and environment.

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 Openness
• There is no boundary or barrier that can inhibit the flow of
energy between human and environment which leads to
the continuous movement or matter of energy.

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 Pattern
• Pattern is defined as the distinguishing characteristic of an
energy field perceived as a single waves
• "pattern is an abstraction and it gives identity to the field"

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 Pan dimensionality
• Pan dimensionality is defined as "non linear domain
without spatial or temporal attributes"
• Human being are pan dimensional being and have
more than three dimension.

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 Homeodynamic principles
• Homeodynamics refers to the balance between the
dynamic life process and environment.
• These principles help to view human as unitary
human being.
• Three principle of homeodynamics
– Resonancy
– Helicy
– integrality

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1. Resonancy
• Wave patterns are continuously changing in environmental and
human energy fields.
2. Helicy
• The nature of change is unpredictable, continuous, and an
innovative.
3. Integrality
• Energy fields of humans and environment are in a continuous
mutual process.

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 Roger’s theory and nursing
metaparadigm
Perso
n
Environmen
t Health
Nursing
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1. Unitary Human Being (person)
• Rogers defines person as an open system in continuous process
with the open system that is the environment (integrality).
• She defines unitary human being as an “irreducible, indivisible,
pan dimensional energy field identified by pattern and
manifesting characteristics that are specific to the whole”
• Within a conceptual model specific to nursing’s concern, people
and their environment are perceived as irreducible energy fields
integral with one another and continuously creative in their
evolution.

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2. Environment
• It includes the entire energy field other than a person.

• These energy fields are irreducible, not limited by space and

time, identified by its pattern and organization.
• Each environmental field is specific to its given human field.

• Environmental and human fields are identified by wave patterns

manifesting continuous mutual change.
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3. Health
• Rogers uses the term health in many of her earlier
writings without clearly defining the term.
• She uses the term passive health to symbolize wellness
and the absence of disease and major illness (Rogers,
1970).
• Her promotion of positive health connotes direction in
helping people with opportunities for rhythmic consistency
(Rogers, 1970).

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Health…………………...
• Later, she wrote that wellness “is a much better term . …...
because the term health is very ambiguous” (Rogers,
1994b, p. 34).
• Rogers uses health as a value term defined by the culture
or the individual.
• Health and illness are manifestations of pattern and are
considered “to denote behaviors that are of high value and
low value” (Rogers,1980).

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4. Nursing

• Nursing exists to serve people.

• Nursing is both science and art.

• It is the direct and overriding responsibility to the society

• It is an empirical science and, like other sciences, it lies

in the phenomenon central to its focus.

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Nursing…………………
• “Professional practice in nursing seeks to promote
symphonic interaction between human and environmental
fields,
To strengthen the integrity of the human field,
To direct and redirect patterning of the human and
environmental fields for realization of maximum health
potential”
• Nursing exists for the care of people and the life process of
humans
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 Application of Roger’s theory in
nursing

Clinical Nursing
Research
education
Practice
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 Clinical practice

• Nursing action is always focused on unitary human being

and change the energy field between human and
environment.
• Nursing action include all non-invasive actions such as guided
imaginary, humor, therapeutic touch, music etc. which are used
to increase the potential of human field.
• The more importance should be on the management of pain,
supportive therapy and rehabilitation.

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Example in nursing care plan:

• Hana 22 years old female was admitted in psychiatric hospital

with severe depression secondary to diagnosis of ovarian
malignancy. She became tearfull while history taking. Hana was
accompanied by her husband and 1 year old child. Her husband
appear anxious but supportive. Hana was diagnosed with ovarian
cancer 2 month ago and underwent surgery for same. From past
three week Hana started sitting alone, decreased activity of daily
living, repeated crying spells, decreased talk, decreased sleep,
neglecting her child care, and also attempted suicide.

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 Nursing education

• Emphasis should be given on the understanding of the

patient and self, energy field and environment.
• Example :
Training should lay more focus on teaching non-
invasive modalities such as therapeutic touch,
meditation, humor, regular in service education
programme etc.

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 Research
• Rogerian theory has been used in many research works and
has always found testable and applicable in research.
• Example:-
A study to assess the effectiveness of music therapy on
stress reduction among postmenopausal women residing
in Hudco Colony, Coimbatore
A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Yoga Therapy in
Reducing Stress among Primary Care Givers of Psychiatric
Patients.
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 Strengths

• Rogers’ concepts provide a worldview from which nurses

may derive theories and hypotheses and propose
relationships specific to different situations.
• Rogers’ theory is not directly testable due to lack of
concrete hypotheses, but it is testable in principle.

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 Weakness

• Overall this theory is considered as very complex concept and quite

difficult to understand.
• Rogers’ model does not define particular hypotheses or theories for it is
an abstract, unified, and highly derived framework.
• Testing the concepts’ validity is questionable because its concepts are
not directly measurable.
• The theory was believed to be profound, and was too ambitious
because the concepts are extremely abstract.
• Rogers claimed that nursing exists to serve people; however, nurses’
roles were not clearly defined.

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 Critique

Clarity
• There were early criticisms of the model with comments
such as difficult-to-understand principles, lack of
operational definitions, and inadequate tools for
measurement (Butterfield, 1983)

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CONT’D…………….

• However, the model has passed the test of time for the
development of nursing science as nursing matured as a
science.

• Rogers’ ideas continue to demonstrate clarity for nursing

research with human beings of all ages (Terwilliger,
Gueldner, & Bronstein, 2012).
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CONT’D…………………

Simplicity
• Ongoing studies and work within the model have served to
simplify and clarify some of the concepts and
relationships.
• However, when the model is examined in total
perspective, some still classify it as complex.

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 CONT’D…………………

Generality
• Rogers’ conceptual model is abstract and therefore
generalizable and powerful.
• It is broad in scope, providing a framework for the
development of nursing knowledge through the generation of
grand and middle-range theories.

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CONT’D…………………

Accessibility
• Drawing on knowledge from a multitude of scientific fields,
Rogers’ conceptual model is deductive in logic with an
inherent lack of immediate empirical support (Barrett,
1990b).

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CONT’D…………………

Importance
• Rogers’ science has the fundamental intent of
understanding human evolution and its potential for human
betterment.
• The science “coordinates a universe of open systems to
identify the focus of a new paradigm and initiate nursing’s
identity as a science” (Rogers,1989, p. 182).

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 Summary and Conclusion

• The Science of Unitary and irreducible Human Beings is highly

generalizable as the concepts and ideas are not confined with a
specific nursing approach unlike the usual way of other nurse
theorists in defining the major concepts of a theory.
• Rogers gave much emphasis on how a nurse should view the
patient. She developed principles which emphasizes that a
nurse should view the client as a whole.
• Her statements, in general, made us believe that a person and his
or her environment are integral to each other. That is, a patient
can’t be separated from his or her environment when addressing
health and treatment.

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• References:
1. Basavanthappa BT : “ NURSING THEORIES” ; 1ST Edition 2007 ; Jaypee brother publication ; New delhi. Page
no : 273-285

2. Navdeep kaur brar, “ ADVANCE NURSING PRACTICE”; 1st edition,

2015; jaypee brother publications, new delhi; p.p-615 - 623.

3. Potter and perry : “ FUNDAMENTAL OF NURSING”; 7THedition; Elsevier publication, Nodia. Page no:
66-68.

4. Samta soni, “ TEXTBOOK OF ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE”; 1st edition, 2013; Jaypee publications,
new delhi.p.p – 277-285

5. Taylor carol : “ FUNDAMENTAL OF NURSING” ; 5TH edition RP 2006 ; published by wolters kluwer health pvt
Ltd , New delhi. Page no: 77- 81.
6. Rogers, M. E. (1986b). Dimensions of health: A view from space. Paper presented at the conference on “Law
and Life in Space,” September 12, 1986. Center for Aerospace Sciences, University of North Dakota.

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 • Websites :
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_E._Rogers
– nurseslabs.com/martha-e-rogers-theory-unitary-
human-beings
– www.nursing-theory.org/theories
-and.../roger-
theory-of-unitary-human-beings.php
– nursingtheories.weebly.com/martha-
rogers.html
– nsq.sagepub.com/content/1/2/50.refs
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAUyDMIh
jyg
5/9/21 – martharogerstheory.blogspot.com/2012/03/mart
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