10/20/2019 Martha Rogers: Science of Unitary Human Beings - Nurseslabs

Martha Rogers: Science of Unitary Human

Beings
By Angelo Gonzalo, BSN, RN - September 9, 2014

Martha Rogers is a nurse theorist who is the proponent of the nursing theory: “Science of
Unitary Human Beings”. Get to know the major concepts behind her theory including a section
about her biography and career as a nurse.

1. Biography of Martha E. Rogers

1.1. Early Life
1.2. Education
1.3. Career and Appointments
1.4. Theory
1.4.1. The Science of Unitary Human Beings
1.5. Works
1.6. Awards and Honors
1.7. Death

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2. Rogers' Theory of Unitary Human Beings

2.1. Assumptions
2.2. Major Concepts
2.2.1. Human-unitary human beings
2.2.2. Health
2.2.3. Nursing
2.2.4. Scope of Nursing
2.2.5. Environmental Field
2.2.6. Energy Field
2.3. Subconcepts
2.3.1. Openness
2.3.2. Pandimensional
2.3.3. Pattern
2.3.4. Principles of Homeodynamics
2.3.5. Principle of Reciprocy
2.3.6. Principle of Synchrony
2.3.7. Principle of Integrality (Synchrony + Reciprocy)
2.3.8. Principle of Resonancy
2.3.9. Principle of Helicy
2.4. Science of Unitary Human Beings and Nursing Process
2.5. Strengths
2.6. Weaknesses
2.7. Conclusion
3. See Also
4. References
5. External Links

Biography of Martha E. Rogers

Martha Elizabeth Rogers (May 12, 1914 – March 13, 1994) was an American nurse, researcher,
theorist, and author widely known for developing the Science of Unitary Human Beings and for her
landmark book, An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing.

She believes that a patient can never be separated from his or her environment when addressing
health and treatment. Her knowledge about the coexistence of the human and his or her
environment contributed a lot in the process of change toward better health.

Early Life
Martha Rogers was born on May 12, 1914; sharing a birthday with Florence Nightingale. She was
the eldest of four children of Bruce Taylor Rogers and Lucy Mulholland Keener Rogers.

She had a thirst for knowledge at an early age. She found

Kindergarten to be “terribly exciting” and had a love and passion
for books that was fostered by her parents. Her father introduced
her to the public library at the age of 3 where she loved story time.
She liked to go o by herself with a book. And by the fourth grade,
she had read every book in her school library. She used to go to
the public library before I was 6 even before she could read. She
was well acquainted with the public library and started reading
eight books at a time. Her father used to be bothered if she was
just skimming but he later on discovered that the young Rogers
Portrait of Martha E. Rogers
was learning fast.

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In fact, Rogers already knew the Greek alphabet by age 10. By the sixth grade, she already
nished reading all 20 volumes of The Child’s Book of Knowledge and was into the Encyclopedia
Britannica.

She also loved to read various topics like anthropology,

archaeology, cosmology, ethnography, astronomy, ethics,
psychology, eastern philosophy, and aesthetics. By her senior year
she had completed all the high school math courses and was
taking a college level algebra course where she was the only
female in the class.

Education Four Generations, Left to right: Lucy K Rogers,

mother; Martha E. Rogers; Laura B. Keener,
Initially, Martha Rogers wanted to do something that would, grandmother; Lucy M. Brownlee, great-
grandmother. via V. M. Malinski & E.A.M.
hopefully contribute to social welfare like law and medicine. Barrett, 1994
However, she only studied medicine for a couple of years because
women in medicine were not particularly desirable during her
time. Instead, Rogers along with her friend entered a local hospital that had a school of nursing.
But just like Nightingale, her parents weren’t really any happier over that decision than they had
between over medicine.

Bruce T. Rogers (Father), Martha, Keener (Brother), Laura (Sister), Lucy K. Rogers (Mother), via E.A.M. Barrett & V.M. Malinski,
1994

She then transferred to Knoxville General Hospital’s nursing program and was one of 25 students
in her class. She described her training as at times as being miserable because the training was
like the “Army, pre-Nightingale.” She even spent a week at home, thinking of not returning to
school but eventually enjoyed working with people and patients.

Rogers received her nursing diploma from the Knoxville General Hospital School of Nursing in
1936, then earned her Public Health Nursing degree from George Peabody College in Tennessee
in 1937. She sold her car to pay for tuition and entered a Masters degree program full-time.

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Rogers Family, circa 1945. Jane L. Coleman, Martha E. Rogers, Lucy K. Rogers, (Mother)
Keener (Brother) , Laura B. Whihte (sister) via E.A.M. Barrett & V.M. Malinski, 1994

Her Master’s degree was from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1945, and her
Doctorate in Nursing was given to her from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore in 1954. She
completed her studies in 1954 and the title of her dissertation was “The association of maternal
and fetal factors with the development of behavior problems among elementary school children.”

Career and Appointments

After Martha Rogers graduated from George Peabody College in Tennessee in 1937, she worked
for the Children’s Fund of Michigan for two years as public health nurse.

In 1940, she accepted a position in Hartford, CT at the Visiting Nurse

Association. She worked at the Association for ve years, rst as an
Assistant Supervisor, then as the Assistant Education Director, and lastly
as the acting Director of Education. At the same time she was
completing her coursework at Teacher’s College and completed her
degree requirements (Master of Arts) in 1945.

After completing her degree in 1945, she sent out a number of job
inquiry letters, considered staying in Hartford, but settled on a position
as the Executive Director at the Visiting Nurse Service in Phoenix,
Arizona. She believed she may have been the rst nurse in Arizona with
Rogers in her Teens via E.A.M. Barrett
a masters degree and for 1945 to 1951, she built up the Visiting Nursing
&
Service in Phoenix. V.M. Malinski, 1994

While a doctoral student, she did spend a year as a visiting lecturer at a

Catholic University in Washington, DC.

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Rogers and her predecessor Vera Fry at NYU circa 1954

Rogers was then appointed Professor and Head of the Division of Nursing at New York University
right after graduating from Hopkins. She was encouraged to accept the position by Ruth
Freeman. When Rogers arrived at NYU, Vera Fry was the previous Division Head and Joan Hoexter
stated that all of the nursing faculty left except her. She was also a Fellow for the American
Academy of Nursing.

Rogers o cially retired as Professor and Head of the Division of Nursing in 1975 after 21 years of
service. Following her retirement, she continued to teach at NYU, was a frequent presenter at
scienti c conferences throughout the world, and consistently worked to re ne her conceptual
system.

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Rogers with John Phillips

Rogers was also actively involved in professional nursing organizations and associations
concerned with education and scholarship. In 1979, she became Professor Emerita and continued
to have an active role in the development of nursing and the Science of Unitary Human Beings.

Theory

The Science of Unitary Human Beings

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Rogers with Sr. Callista Roy (right)

Martha Rogers’ theory is known as the Science of Unitary Human Beings (SUHB). The theory
views nursing as both a science and an art as it provides a way to view the unitary human being,
who is integral with the universe. The unitary human being and his or her environment are one.
Nursing focuses on people and the manifestations that emerge from the mutual human-
environmental eld process.

SUHB contains two dimensions: the science of nursing, which is the knowledge speci c to the eld
of nursing that comes from scienti c research; and the art of nursing, which involves using the
science of nursing creatively to help better the life of the patient.

Her model addresses the importance of the environment as an

integral part of the patient, and uses that knowledge to help nurses
blend the science and art of nursing to ensure patients have a
smooth recovery and can get back to the best health possible.

There are eight concepts in Rogers’ nursing theory: energy eld,

openness, pattern, pan-dimensionality, homeodynamic principles,
resonance, helicy, and integrality.

Rogers’ development of the said theory has become an in uential

nursing theory in the United States. When rst introduced, it was
Rogers wearing “Just visiting this planet!” cap,
considered profound, and was too ambitious, but now is simply Photo by M Bramlett, 1991

thought to be ahead of its time. Her conceptual framework has

greatly in uenced all aspects of nursing by o ering an alternative
to traditional approaches of nursing.

Her theory is discussed further below.

Works
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Martha Rogers wrote three books that enriched the learning experience and
in uenced the direction of nursing research for countless students: Educational
Revolution in Nursing (1961), Reveille in Nursing (1964).

In about 1963 Rogers edited a journal called Nursing Science. It was during that
time that Rogers was beginning to formulate ideas about the publication of her
third book, An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing (1970), the last of
which introduced the four Rogerian Principles of Homeodynamics. Front cover of Reveille in
Nursing (1964)

Her publications include: Theoretical Basis of Nursing (1970), Nursing Science and
Art: A Prospective (1988), Nursing: Science of Unitary, Irreducible, Human Beings Update (1990), and
Vision of Space Based Nursing (1990).

Awards and Honors

Martha Rogers was honored with numerous awards and citations for her
sustained contributions to nursing and science. In 1996, she was posthumously
inducted into the American Nurses Association’s Hall of Fame.

Death
Roger’s third book “An
Martha Rogers died on March 13, 1994 and was buried in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Introduction to the
She has a memorial placed in the sidewalk near her childhood home in Theoretical Basis of
Nursing” (1970)
Knoxville.

Memorial placed in the sidewalk near her childhood home in

Knoxville by Gamma Chi, Sigma Theta Tau, International.
Photo by Martha Alligood

Rogers’ Theory of Unitary Human Beings

The belief of the coexistence of the human and the environment has greatly in uenced the
process of change toward better health. In short, a patient can’t be separated from his or her
environment when addressing health and treatment. This view lead and opened Martha E.
Rogers’ theory, known as the “Science of Unitary Human Beings,” which allowed nursing to be
considered one of the scienti c disciplines.

Rogers’ theory de ned Nursing as “an art and science that is humanistic and humanitarian. It is
directed toward the unitary human and is concerned with the nature and direction of human
development. The goal of nurses is to participate in the process of change.”

According to Rogers, the Science of Unitary Human Beings contains two dimensions: the science
of nursing, which is the knowledge speci c to the eld of nursing that comes from scienti c
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research; and the art of nursing, which involves using the science of nursing creatively to help
better the life of the patient.

Assumptions
The assumptions of Rogers’ Theory of Unitary Human Beings are as follows: (1) Man is a uni ed
whole possessing his own integrity and manifesting characteristics that are more than and
di erent from the sum of his parts. (2) Man and environment are continuously exchanging matter
and energy with one another. (3) The life process evolves irreversibly and unidirectionally along
the space-time continuum. (4) Pattern and organization identify the man and re ect his
innovative wholeness. And lastly, (5) Man is characterized by the capacity for abstraction and
imagery, language and thought sensation and emotion.

Major Concepts
The following are the major concepts and metaparadigm of Martha Rogers’ nursing theory:

Human-unitary human beings

A person is de ned as an indivisible, pan-dimensional energy eld identi ed by a pattern, and

manifesting characteristics speci c to the whole, and that can’t be predicted from knowledge of
the parts. A person is also a uni ed whole, having its own distinct characteristics that can’t be
viewed by looking at, describing, or summarizing the parts.

Health

Rogers de nes health as an expression of the life process. It is the characteristics and behavior
coming from the mutual, simultaneous interaction of the human and environmental elds, and
health and illness are part of the same continuum. The multiple events occurring during the life
process show the extent to which a person is achieving his or her maximum health potential. The
events vary in their expressions from greatest health to those conditions that are incompatible
with the maintaining life process.

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Nursing

It is the study of unitary, irreducible, indivisible human and environmental elds: people and their
world. Rogers claims that nursing exists to serve people, and the safe practice of nursing depends
on the nature and amount of scienti c nursing knowledge the nurse brings to his or her practice

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Scope of Nursing

Nursing aims to assist people in achieving their maximum health potential. Maintenance and
promotion of health, prevention of disease, nursing diagnosis, intervention, and rehabilitation
encompass the scope of nursing’s goals.

Nursing is concerned with people-all people-well and sick, rich and poor, young and old. The
arenas of nursing’s services extend into all areas where there are people: at home, at school, at
work, at play; in hospital, nursing home, and clinic; on this planet and now moving into outer
space.

Environmental Field

“An irreducible, indivisible, pandimensional energy eld identi ed by pattern and integral with the
human eld.”

Energy Field

The energy eld is the fundamental unit of both the living and the non-living. It provides a way to
view people and the environment as irreducible wholes. The energy elds continuously vary in
intensity, density, and extent.

Subconcepts

Openness

There are no boundaries that stop energy ow between the human and environmental elds,
which is the openness in Rogers’ theory. It refers to qualities exhibited by open systems; human
beings and their environment are open systems.

Pandimensional

Pan-dimensionality is de ned as “non-linear domain without spatial or temporal attributes.” The

parameters that humans use in language to describe events are arbitrary, and the present is
relative; there is no temporal ordering of lives.

Synergy is de ned as the unique behavior of whole systems, unpredicted by any behaviors of
their component functions taken separately.

Human behavior is synergistic.

Pattern

Rogers de ned the pattern as the distinguishing characteristic of an energy eld seen as a single
wave. It is an abstraction and gives identity to the eld.

Principles of Homeodynamics

Homeodynamics should be understood as a dynamic version of homeostasis (a relatively steady

state of internal operation in the living system).

Homeodynamic principles postulate a way of viewing unitary human beings. The three principles
of homeodynamics are resonance, helicy, and integrality.

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Principle of Reciprocy

Postulates the inseparability of man and environment and predicts that sequential changes in life
process are continuous, probabilistic revisions occurring out of the interactions between man and
environment.

Principle of Synchrony

This principle predicts that change in human behavior will be determined by the simultaneous
interaction of the actual state of the human eld and the actual state of the environmental eld at
any given point in space-time.

Principle of Integrality (Synchrony + Reciprocy)

Because of the inseparability of human beings and their environment, sequential changes in the
life processes are continuous revisions occurring from the interactions between human beings
and their environment.

Between the two entities, there is a constant mutual interaction and mutual change whereby
simultaneous molding is taking place in both at the same time.

Principle of Resonancy

It speaks to the nature of the change occurring between human and environmental elds. The life
process in human beings is a symphony of rhythmical vibrations oscillating at various
frequencies.

It is the identi cation of the human eld and the environmental eld by wave patterns
manifesting continuous change from longer waves of lower frequency to shorter waves of higher
frequency.

Principle of Helicy

The human-environment eld is a dynamic, open system in which change is continuous due to
the constant interchange between the human and environment.

This change is also innovative. Because of constant interchange, an open system is never exactly
the same at any two moments; rather, the system is continually new or di erent.

Science of Unitary Human Beings and Nursing Process

The nursing process has three steps in Rogers’ Theory of Unitary Human Beings: assessment,
voluntary mutual patterning, and evaluation.

The areas of assessment are: the total pattern of events at any given point in space-time,
simultaneous states of the patient and his or her environment, rhythms of the life process,
supplementary data, categorical disease entities, subsystem pathology, and pattern appraisal.
The assessment should be a comprehensive assessment of the human and environmental elds.

Mutual patterning of the human and environmental elds includes:

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sharing knowledge
o ering choices
empowering the patient
fostering patterning
evaluation
repeat pattern appraisal, which includes nutrition, work/leisure activities, wake/sleep cycles,
relationships, pain, and fear/hopes
identify dissonance and harmony
validate appraisal with the patient
self-re ection for the patient

Strengths
Martha Rogers’ concepts provide a worldview from which nurses may derive theories and
hypotheses and propose relationships speci c to di erent situations.

Rogers’ theory is not directly testable due to lack of concrete hypotheses, but it is testable in
principle.

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Weaknesses
Rogers’ model does not de ne particular hypotheses or theories for it is an abstract, uni ed and
highly derived framework.

Testing the concepts’ validity is questionable because its concepts are not directly measurable.

The theory was believed to be profound and was too ambitious because the concepts are
extremely abstract.

Rogers claimed that nursing exists to serve people, however, nurses’ roles were not clearly
de ned.

The purpose of nurses is to promote health and well-being for all persons wherever they are.
However, Rogers’ model has no concrete de nition of health state.

Conclusion
The Science of Unitary Human Beings is highly generalizable as the concepts and ideas are not
con ned with a speci c nursing approach unlike the usual way of other nurse theorists in
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de ning the major concepts of a theory.

Rogers gave much emphasis on how a nurse should view the patient. She developed principles
which emphasize that a nurse should view the client as a whole.

Her statements, in general, made us believe that a person and his or her environment are integral
to each other. That is, a patient can’t be separated from his or her environment when addressing
health and treatment. Her conceptual framework has greatly in uenced all aspects of nursing by
o ering an alternative to traditional approaches of nursing.

See Also
You may also like the following nursing theories study guides: 

Nursing Theories and Theorists – The Ultimate Nursing Theories and Theorists Guide for
Nurses.

References
Rogers, M. E. (1989). An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis
Hektor LM (1989) Martha E Rogers: A Life History. Nursing Science Quarterly 2; 2, 63-73.
Sa er, G. (1977). Contemporary American leaders in nursing: An oral history. New York:
McGraw Hill.

External Links
An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing
Martha E Rogers: Her Life and Her Work

With contributions by Wayne, G., Vera, M. 

Last updated on September 12, 2019

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Angelo Gonzalo, BSN, RN

Angelo Gonzalo earned his Nursing degree in the year 2010 and continued his studies at St. Paul University Manila taking up
Masters of Arts in Nursing Major in Clinical Management. He worked as an intensive care nurse for more than six years. He
advocates for proper training and development of new nurses, quality assurance and compassionate care. He has also been
involved in community development for 10 years steering programs on good governance, health, sports, and education. Angelo
aims to build a good foundation for aspiring nurses. He would like to impart the importance of understanding nursing theories
that he hopes to be translated successfully to practice.

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