A THEORY OF NURSING
A human nurse nurses through a clinical process of "I-Thou, I-It, all-at-once to comfort." {112}
"I-Thou" is a coming to know the other and the self in relation, intuitively.
"I-It" is an authentic analyzing, synthesizing, and interpreting of the
"I-Thou" relation through reflection.
The "all-at-once" symbolizes the multifarious multiplicities of extremes (incommensurables, criticals, nonconsequentials, contradictions, and inconsistencies) as metaphorically representative of what exists in the nurse's world.
"Comfort" is a state valued by a nurse as an aim in which a person is free to be and become, controlling and planning his own destiny, in accordance with his potential at a particular time in a particular situation.