The interconnectedness of community involves rela-
tionship that transcends separating differences.There
[is] no lack of spoken and written words about per-
sons experiencing the separating differencesof living
with little or no money and no place to call home.
What is missing in community is an intentional lis-
tening to the sound of these voices speaking and writ-
ing about their own hopes and meanings. To embrace
separating differencesinvolves listening and under-
standing others. The nurse-person-community health
process involves being truly present with others with
a listening receptivity to differing values. Nurses prac-
ticing in this model understand that community as
process entails moving together in seeking mutual
understanding.... Moving together in seeking mu-
tual understanding calls for a type of listening to one
another where both nurse and person-community
engage in contributing to expanding choices for living
health. (pp. 94–95)Parse (1996) proposed that community in its
most abstract sense is “the universe, the galaxy of
human connectedness” (p. 4). Her most recent
book offers new ways to think about community
change and community connectedness (Parse,
2003a). The Health Action Model for Partnership
in Community seeks to cultivate this human con-
nectedness for the betterment of humankind.
RESEARCH
The published research that has been generated, in-
spired, and guided by the human becoming school
of thought has been on the three research methods
mentioned in Part 1 of this chapter: the Parse re-
search method, the human becoming hermeneutic
method, and the qualitative-descriptive preproject-
process-postproject method.
Parse’s Research Method
The essentials of Parse’s phenomenological-
hermeneutic research methodology were first pub-
lished in the book Nursing Science: Major
Paradigms, Theories, and Critiques(Parse, 1987). In
1990, Parse published a more detailed explication
of the method, along with an illustration focusing
on the lived experience of hope (Parse, 1990). A
number of studies using the method have been
published over the past 15 years (for example, see
Bournes, 2002a; Bournes & Mitchell, 2002;
Bunkers, 1998a, 2004; Cody, 1991, 1995a,b; Jonas-
Simpson, 2003; Parse, 1994a, 1997b, 2001b, 2003b;
Pilkington, 1993). A previously unpublished exam-
ple, drawn from a study of the lived experience of
feeling confident with persons living with a spinal
cord injury, follows.
Research guided by human becoming focuses on
enhancing understanding of universal lived experi-
ences such as feeling confident.Parse (1981, 1998a)
posits that in all situations, and with every choice
humans make, both certainty and uncertainty exist
as a paradoxical, rhythmical pattern of human ex-
perience, since in every choice there is a sureness
about what one wants to do, yet there is always am-
biguity about how situations will unfold. People
cannot predict how life will turn out, but they can
imagine what is possible in light of what is familiar-
unfamiliar, choose among imaged options, and live
a commitment to what is important to them.
Consider, for example, a study of the lived expe-
rience of feeling confident of people living with a
spinal cord injury. Participants in this study were
three women and seven men between 22 and 42
years of age (mean 32.7 years) who agreed to speak
with the researcher about their experience of feel-
ing confident. The participants, all living in their
own homes, had been living with a spinal cord in-
jury for a period that ranged from 1.5 to 16 years
(mean 7.9 years).
In the Parse research method, data-gathering
happens through the process ofdialogical engage-
ment—an intersubjective process whereby the re-
searcher lives true presence with the participant.
The researcher moves in rhythm with the partici-
pant’s description of the phenomenon (Parse, 1998,
2001a). In this study, the researcher asked the par-
ticipants, “Please tell me about your experience of
feeling confident.” The researcher then attended to
each participant’s description. No other questions
were planned—although the participants were
sometimes encouraged to say more or to speak
about how some things they said related to their ex-
perience of feeling confident. The dialogues, which
lasted from 20 to 60 minutes, were all audiotaped
and transcribed for the extraction-synthesis(data-
analysis) process.
Extraction-synthesis is the process of moving the
descriptions from the language of the participants
across levels of abstraction to the language of sci-
ence (Parse, 1998, 2001a). It includes: extracting
and synthesizing stories and essences (core ideas
and examples each participant shared about feeling200 SECTION III Nursing Theory in Nursing Practice, Education, Research, and Administration