N ursin g S c i e n c e Q u a rt e rly , 12:4, O c t o b e r 1999
Editorial
Editorial
Nursing: The Discipline and the Profession
N ursing is a discipline and a profession. The goal of the
discipline is to expand knowledge about human experiences
through creative conceptualization and research. This knowl-
edge is the scientific guide to living the art of nursing. The
discipline-specific knowledge is given birth and fostered in
academic settings where research and education move the
knowledge to new realms of understanding. The goal of the
profession is to provide service to humankind through living
the art of the science. Members of the nursing profession are
responsible for regulation of standards of practice and educa-
tion based on disciplinary knowledge that reflects safe health
service to society in all settings.
The discipline of nursing encompasses the knowledge in
the extant frameworks and theories that are embedded in the
totality and simultaneity paradigms (Parse, 1987). These
theories and frameworks explicate the nature of nursings
major phenomenon of concern, the human-universe-health
process. The totality view is of the human as bodymindspirit,
and the simultaneity view is of the human as unitary. The
bodymindspirit perspective is particulate with a focus on the
bio-psycho-social-spiritual parts of the whole human as the
human interacts with and adapts to the environment. Health is
a state of biological, psychological, social, and spiritual
well-being. The ontologies in the totality paradigm lead to re-
search and practice with phenomena related to preventing dis-
ease and maintaining and promoting health according to so-
cietal norms. In contrast, the unitary perspective is a view of
the human as irreducible in mutual process with the universe.
Health is a process of changing value priorities. It is not a
static state but rather ever changing as the human chooses
ways of living. The ontologies in the simultaneity paradigm
lead to research and practice on patterns (Rogers, 1992), lived
experiences, and quality of life (Parse, 1981, 1997, 1998).
Since the ontologies of these paradigmatic perspectives lead
to different research and practice modalities, they lead to dif-
ferent professional services to humankind. The professional
services are specified and governed by legislative bodies that
preserve the standards of the profession.
The profession of nursing consists of persons educated in
the discipline according to nationally regulated, defined, and
monitored standards. The standards and regulations are to
preserve healthcare safety for members of society. Currently,
the nursing regulations and standards are specified predomi-
nantly in medical science terms, with little reference to
Nursing Science Quarterly, Vol. 12 No. 4, October 1999, 275-276
1999 Sage Publications, Inc.
unique nursing knowledge. This is according to tradition and
largely related to nursings early subservience to medicine.
Recently, the nurse leaders in healthcare systems and in
regulating organizations have been developing standards
(Mitchell, 1998) and regulations (Damgaard & Bunkers,
1998) consistent with discipline-specific knowledge as
articulated in the nursing theories and frameworks in the to-
tality and simultaneity paradigms. This is a very significant
development that will fortify the identity of nursing as a
unique discipline. The discipline-specific knowledge in stan-
dards and regulations sets forth the service that society can
expect from members of the profession, thus clarifying the
status of nursing for the public. With the rapidly changing
health policies and the general dissatisfaction of consumers
with healthcare delivery, clearly stated expectations for nurs-
ing services from each paradigm are a welcome change.
What does this mean for the profession? Just as in other
disciplines, the nursing education and practice standards
must be broad enough to encompass the possibility of prac-
tice within each paradigm. For example, the totality paradigm
frameworks and theories are more closely aligned with the
medical model tradition. Nurses living the beliefs of this para-
digm are concerned with participation of persons in health-
care decisions related to promotion and maintenance of
health and prevention of illness. They have specific regimes
and goals to bring about change that they believe to be best for
the people they serve (Frey & Sieloff, 1995; Taylor, 1988).
Nurses living the beliefs of the simultaneity paradigm hold as
primary, persons perspectives of their health situations and
their personal desires to change. Thus, there are no specific
regimes and goals established to meet societal norms. Nurses
focus on knowing participation (Madrid & Barrett, 1994;
Rogers, 1992) and bearing witness, as persons in their pres-
ence choose ways of changing health patterns (Parse, 1981,
1995, 1997, 1998).
Although the discipline and the profession of nursing have
different goals, the raison dtre of nursing is the enhance-
ment of quality of life for humankind. The discipline provides
the science lived in the art of practice.
Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, RN; PhD; FAAN
Editor
Keywords: discipline, profession, simultaneity, totality
276 Nursing Science Quarterly, 12:4, October 1999
References
Damgaard, G., & Bunkers, S. S. (1998). Nursing science-guided
practice and education: A state board of nursing perspective.
Nursing Science Quarterly, 11, 142-144.
Frey, M. A., & Sieloff, C. L. (Eds.). (1995). Advancing Kings sys-
tems framework and theory of nursing. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
Madrid, M., & Barrett, E.A.M. (Eds.). (1994). Rogers scientific art
of nursing practice. New York: National League for Nursing
Press.
Mitchell, G. J. (1998). Standards of nursing and the winds of change.
Nursing Science Quarterly, 11, 97-98.
Parse, R. R. (1981). Man-living-health: A theory of nursing. New
York: John Wiley.
Parse, R. R. (1987). Nursing science: Major paradigms, theories,
and critiques. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders.
Parse, R. R. (Ed.). (1995). Illuminations: The human becoming the-
ory in practice and research. New York: National League for
Nursing.
Parse, R. R. (1997). The human becoming theory: The was, is, and
will be. Nursing Science Quarterly, 10, 32-38.
Parse, R. R. (1998). The human becoming school of thought: A per-
spective for nurses and other health professionals. Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage.
Rogers, M. E. (1992). Nursing in the space age. Nursing Science
Quarterly, 5, 27-34.
Taylor, S. G. (1988). Nursing theory and nursing process: Orems
theory in practice. Nursing Science Quarterly, 1, 111-119.