The unique focus of nursing as “the irre-
ducible human being and its environment,
both identified as energy fields.”environment, both identified as energy fields”
(p. 33). “Human” encompasses both Homo sapiens
and Homo spatialis,the evolutionary transcendence
of humankind as we voyage into space, and envi-
ronment encompasses outer space. This perspective
necessitates a new worldview, out of which emerges
the Science of Unitary Human Beings, “a pandi-
mensional view of people and their world” (Rogers,
1992, 1994, p. 257).
Rogers described the new worldview underpin-
ning her conceptual system to students and col-
leagues beginning in 1968. It has been available in
print with some revisions in language since 1986
(Madrid & Winstead-Fry, 1986; Malinski, 1986;
Rogers, 1990a, 1990b, 1992, 1994a, 1994b). Rogers
(1992) described the evolution from older to newer
worldviews in such shifting perspectives as cell the-
ory to field theory, entropic to negentropic universe,
three dimensional to pandimensional, person-envi-
ronment as dichotomous to person-environment
as integral, causation and adaptation to mutual
process, dynamic equilibrium to innovative grow-
ing diversity, homeostasis to homeodynamics, wak-
ing as a basic state to waking as an evolutionary
emergent, and closed to open systems. She pointed
In a universe of open systems, energy fields
are continuously open, infinite, and inte-
gral with one another.out that in a universe of open systems, energy fields
are continuously open, infinite, and integral with
one another. Change that is predictable, brought
about by a linear, causal chain of events, gives way
to change that is diverse, creative, innovative, and
unpredictable.
Rogers was aware that the world looks very dif-
ferent from the vantage point of the newer view as
contrasted with the older, traditional worldview.
She pointed out that we are already living in a new
reality, one that is “a synthesis of rapidly evolving,
accelerating ways of using knowledge” (Rogers,
1994a, p. 33), even if people are not always fully
aware that these shifts have occurred or are in
process. She urged that nurses be visionary, looking
forward and not backward, and not allowing them-
selves to become stuck in the present, in the details
of how things are now, but envision how they
might be in a universe where continuous change is
the only given. Rogers (1994b) cautioned that, al-
though traditional modalities of practice and
methods of research serve a purpose, they are inad-
equate for the newer worldview, which urges nurses
to use the knowledge base of Rogerian nursing sci-
ence creatively in order to develop innovative new
modalities and research approaches that would
promote the betterment of humankind.POSTULATES OF ROGERIAN
NURSING SCIENCE
Rogers (1992) identified four fundamental postu-
lates:- energy fields,
- openness,
- pattern, and
- pandimensionality, formerly called both four-
dimensionality and multidimensionality.
Rogers identified four fundamental postu-
lates: energy fields, openness, pattern, and
pandimensionality.In their irreducible unity, they form reality as
experienced in this worldview. Rogers (1990a,
1994a, 1994b) defined the energy field as “the fun-
damental unit of the living and the non-living,”
noting that the energy field is infinite and dynamic,
meaning that it is continuously moving and flow-
ing (1990a, p. 7). She identified two energy fields of
concern to nurses, which are distinct but not sepa-
rate: the human field, or unitary human being,
and the environmental field. The human field can
be conceptualized as one person or a group, family,
or community. The human and environmental
fields are irreducible; they cannot be broken down
into component parts or subsystems. Parts have
no meaning in unitary science. For example, the
unitary human is not described as a bio-psycho-
sociocultural or body-mind-spirit entity. Rogers
interpreted such designations as representative of
current uses of “holistic,” meaning a summation of
parts to arrive at the whole, where a nurse would
assess the domains, subsystems, or components162 SECTION III Nursing Theory in Nursing Practice, Education, Research, and Administration