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CHAPTER

13

Martha E. Rogers

PART ONE: Martha E. Rogers’

Science of Unitary

Human Beings

Violet M. Malinski

Introducing the Theorist

Introducing the Theory

Separate Theories Implicit in Science of Unitary

Human Beings

Summary

Bibliography

Introducing the Theorist

Martha E. Rogers, one of nursing’s foremost scien-
tists, was a staunch advocate for nursing as a basic
science. She believed that the art of practice could
be developed only as the science of nursing evolved.
A common refrain throughout her career was the
need to differentiate skills, techniques, and ways of
using knowledge from the body of knowledge that

guides practice to promote health and well-being

for humankind. “The practice of nursing is not

nursing. Rather, it is the use of nursing knowledge

for human betterment” (Rogers, 1994a, p. 34).

Rogers identified the unitary human being and

the environment as the central concern of nurs-

ing, rather than health and illness. She repeatedly

emphasized the need for nursing science to encom-

pass beings in space as well as on Earth. Who was