look for and identify the view(s) of human
beings being expressed or implicit in them.
The adequacy of the theories should be ex-
plored. Models and theories that purport
to be general models of nursing can be
adequate or deficient in their scope as related
to expressing why people need and can be
helped through nursing or in describing
and explaining the structure of nursing
processes.
In any practice field, a general model or
theory incorporates not only the what and
the why, but also the who and the how. The
adequacy of a general theory comes into
question when there is omission of any one
of the named elements. The validity and
specificity of theories referred to as nursing
theories are in question when there is no ref-
erence to the human condition that gives rise
to needs for nursing on the part of individu-
als, to the presence and the powers of persons
qualified as nurses, to the structure of
processes of production of nursing, and to
the results sought.
What comes first, the view of humankind
or the view of nursing in the cognitional
processes of theorists, is a moot question.
The writer’s position is that a theorist’s life
experiences in and accumulated knowledge
of nursing practice situations support the
recognition and naming of nursing-specific
views of human beings. Nursing-specific
views of individual human beings are differ-
entiated from those general views that are
relevant to all the health services or even to
human existence. Such general views include
the view of human beings as energy fields, as
living health, as culture-oriented, or as caring
beings. Such general views, however helpful
in understanding humankind or in identify-
ing approaches to data collection, do not and
cannot support viable nursing science, theo-
retical and practical.References
Black, M. (1962).Models and metaphors.Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press.
Harré, R. (1970).The principles of scientific thinking.Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
Fawcett, J. (2000).Contemporary Nursing Knowledge: Analysis
and evaluation of nursing models and theories.2nd ed.
Philadelphia: F. A. Davis.148 SECTION III Nursing Theory in Nursing Practice, Education, Research, and Administration
the sources and content elements of the respective
models.
The models are offered as a means toward un-
derstanding the reality of the named entities in
concrete nursing practice situations. Despite the di-
versity of these models, they are all directed toward
knowing the structure of the processes that are op-
erational or become operational in the production
of nursing systems, systems of care for individuals
or for dependent-care units or multiperson units
served by nurses.
For information about models and scientific
growth involving development of knowledge in in-
dividual scientists, see Wallace (1983) and Harré
(1970). Black’s Models and Metaphors(1962) was
the source first used by the writer.
The use of specific views of human beings by
nurses or persons in other disciplines does
not negate their acceptance of the unity, the
oneness of each individual man, woman, or
child. In human sciences, specific views of
human beings identify the domain and
boundaries of the science within the broad
frames of humanity and society. In nursing,
for example, the views of human beings ex-
pressed in Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory
identified the proper object of nursing and
were enabling for the development and
structuring of nursing knowledge.
Science, including models and theories, is
about existent entities. A valid comprehen-
sive theory of nursing has as its reality base
individuals who need and receive nursing
care and those who produce it, as well as the
events of its production. Nursing exists in
human societies and is something produced
by human beings for other human beings
when known conditions and relationships
prevail. It is posited that the life experiences
of nursing theorists, their observations and
judgments about the world of nurses, can
and do result in insights about nursing that
can lead to descriptions and explanations of
the human health-care service of nursing.
Nurses and nursing students who are con-
fronted with tasks of reviewing, studying,
mastering, or taking positions about extant
general models or nursing theories should