PREFACE
'The ideas which led to the development of theory of Nursing as Caring have their beginnings in our personal histories and came together when we met in 1983. As we participated in the work of establishing nursing as an academic discipline and creating a nursing curriculum grounded in caring at Florida Atlantic University, each of us learned to value the special insights brought by the other. We also discovered early on that we shared a deep devotion to nursing—to the idea of nursing, to the practice of nursing, to the development of nursing.
Several years ago, we realized that our thinking had developed to the extent that we were working with more than a concept. Although we are well aware of an ongoing debate in nursing over technical versus philosophical connotations of theory, we characterize our work as a general theory of nursing developed in the context of our understanding of human science. While we are familiar with the formal concept of theory used in disciplines grouped in the physical and natural sciences, we believe that mathematical form is not an appropriate model for theory work in the discipline of nursing. Therefore, we do not present our work in the traditional form of concepts, definitions, statements, and propositions, but have struggled to find ways to preserve the integrity of nursing as caring through our expressions.
Our thinking has been particularly influenced by the work of two scholars, Mayeroff and Roach. Both of these authors have given voice to caring in important ways—Mayeroff in terms of generic caring, and Roach in terms of caring person as well as caring in nursing. We are aware of other influences on our understanding of caring and caring in nursing, including Paterson and Zderad, Watson, Ray, Leininger, and Gaut. Our conception of nursing as a discipline has been directly influenced by Phenix, King and Brownell, and the Nursing Development Conference Group. While this is not an exhaustive listing of the scholars who have contributed to the development of our ideas, we have made a deliberate effort to review the evolution of our thinking and to recognize significant specific contributions.
Chapter 1 presents a discussion of key ideas that ground and contextualize nursing as caring. The most fundamental idea is that of person as caring with nursing conceptualized as a discipline. Our understanding of this foundation has been seasoned both from within nursing and from outside the discipline, but always with the purpose of deepening our understanding of nursing. When we have gone outside the discipline to extend possibilities for understanding, we have made an effort to go beyond application, to think through the nursing relevance of ideas that seemed, on the surface, to be useful. Chapter I and subsequent chapters draw on Mayeroff's (1971) caring ingredients, including:
* Knowing—Explicitly and implicitly, knowing that and knowing how, knowing directly, and knowing indirectly (p. 14).
* Alternating rhythm—Moving back and forth between a narrower and a wider framework, between action and reflection (p. 15).
* Patience—Not a passive waiting but participating with the other, giving fully of ourselves (p. 17).
* Honesty—Positive concept that implies openness, genuineness, and seeing truly (p. 18).
* Trust—Trusting the other to grow in his or her own time and own way (p. 20).