Paterson and Zderad Theory Overview
Please click on the links to the left to see how the metaparadigm concepts are applied and understood in Paterson and Zderad's Humanistic Nursing Theory.
Underlying principles of Paterson and Zderad's Humanistic Nursing Theory:
Paterson and Zderad's Humanistic Nursing Theory applies both Humanism and Existentialism to nursing theory. Humanism attempts to take a broader perspective of the individual's potential and tries to understand each individual from the context of their own personal experiences. Existentialism is a philosophical approach to understanding life. It's the belief that thinking begins with the human - the feeling, acting, living individual. Existentialism emphasizes the individual's free-choice, self-determination and self-responsibility. Nursing Dialogue is when a nurse and patient come together. The nurse presents themselves as a a helper ready to assist the patient. The nurse is open to understanding how the patient feels with the intention of improvement. Openness is an essential quality for humanistic nursing dialogue. Paterson and Zderad developed the five phases of the nursing process: 1) Preparation of the Nurse Knower For Coming to Know: In this stage the nurse acts as investigator who willingly takes risks and has an open-mind. The nurse must be a risk-taker and be willing to experience anything. "Accepting the decision to approach the unknown openly". 2) Nurse Knowing of the Other Intuitively: In this stage the nurse tries to understand the other, as in the "I-thou" relationship, where the nurse as the "I" does not superimpose themselves on the "thou" of the patient. 3) Nurse Knowing the Other Scientifically: The nurse as the observer must observe and analyze from the outside. At this stage, the nurse goes from intuition to analysis. Analysis is the sorting, comparing, contrasting, relating, interpreting and categorizing. 4) Nurse Complementarily Synthesizing Known Others: The ability of the nurse to develop or see themselves as a source of knowledge, to continually develop the nursing community through education, and increased understanding of their owned learned experiences. 5) Succession Within the Nurse From the Many to the Paradoxical One: In this stage the nurse takes the information gleaned and applies it in the practical clinical setting. Here the nurse takes brings the dilemma towards resolution. . “Humanistic nursing embraces more than a benevolent technically competent subject-object one-way relationship guided by a nurse in behalf of another. Rather it dictates that nursing is a responsible searching,transactional relationship whose meaningfulness demands conceptualization founded on a nurse's existential awareness of self and of the other” - P&Z "Uniqueness is a universal capacity of the human species. So, "all-at-once," while each man is unique; paradoxically, he is also like his fellows. His very uniqueness is a characteristic of his commonality with all other men." - P&Z |