Nursing according to Martha
“Nursing’s story is a magnificent epic of service to mankind. It is about people: how they are born, and live and die; in health and in sickness; in joy and in sorrow. Its mission is the translation of knowledge into human service. Nursing is compassionate concern for human beings. It is the heart that understands and the hand that soothes. it is the intellect that synthesizes many learnings into meaningful administrations. For students of nursing and the future is a rich repository of far-flung opportunities around this planet and toward the further reaches of man’s explorations of new worlds and new ideas. Theirs is the promise of deep satisfaction in a field long dedicated to serving the health needs of people.”
In the Fall, 1991, issue of Rogerian Nursing Science News: Newsletter of the Society of Rogerian
Scholars, Inc. (no longer in production), Dr. Rogers offered the following definitions relevant to
nurses and nursing:
Nurse:
A person who is educated to use nursing knowledge to care for irreducible human and
environmental energy fields. Level and scope of practice are commensurate with academic
preparation.
Nursing (Nursing Science):
The science of irreducible human and environmental energy fields arrived at by a synthesis of
facts and ideas commensurate with a new world view; an organized system of abstract
knowledge; a new product.
The Uniqueness of Nursing and the Purpose of Nurses:
The uniqueness of nursing lies in the identification of the phenomena of concern: irreducible,
indivisible human and environmental energy fields.
The purpose of nurses is to promote well-being and health wherever people are in the life
process, including dying. Nurses help people participate knowingly in the life process,
actualizing potentials deemed most commensurate with well-being. Thus nurses and clients
participate mutually and knowledgeably to optimize potentials.
In her seminal 1992 article, “Nursing Science and the Space Age,” that appeared in Nursing
Science Quarterly, she refined her description of the purpose of nursing:
“to promote human betterment wherever people are, on planet earth or in outer space,”
calling for community-based services, autonomous nursing practice, and noninvasive therapeutic
modalities such as Therapeutic Touch, imagery, meditation, color, sound, motion, humor, etc.