N491 Concepts and Theories in Nursing-JMRY 8- Module 7

Parse’s Human Becoming Theory

Nursing care focuses on improving the quality of life for patients. This is especially the case for terminally ill patients receiving end-of-life care. Unfortunately, how nursing perceives patients places a restriction on the care that can be provided. In fact, the predominance of biomedical model (with mechanistic approaches) has restricted nursing approaches as patients (human beings) are considered as ‘operating machines’ that need to be fixed when an illness occurs. Parse’s Theory of Human Becoming seeks to reverse this perception by considering human beings as unitary beings that are involved in the process of living their lives as co-authors and co-participants so that nursing care does not necessarily have to fix a problem. Parse’s novel approach to nursing allows for a more client-centered nursing care approach with a focus on improving quality of life (Smith & Parker, 2015). The focus of this paper is to explore end-of-life nursing care guided by Human Becoming Theory as applied in a case study to improve a patient’s quality of life.

Actualize Parse’s Theory

Based on the case study, the nurse would actualize Parse’s theory of Human Becoming by shifting away from trying to heal the patient as this is an end-of-life care scenario. Instead, the nurse would focus on seeing the perspective of the patient and guiding the patient towards achieving the desired outcomes. To be more precise, the nurse would approach health as a lived experience with the patient choosing the specific meaning. Besides that, health would be perceived as the unique experience of Ann, not fixed but continuously changing and dynamic. This implies that the value priorities set by Ann and Ben would be considered in the care approach. At the core of this perspective is the understanding that nursing care should improve the quality of life. As such, the nurse would express true presence in becoming a witness to the changing health patterns that the patient experiences, and providing the required support in terms of incorporating the patient’s values and principles. In essence, the nurse would exhibit true presence through intentional and deliberate reflections that are founded on a strong, scientific knowledge base. With this approach, the nurse would bear witness to the patient’s lived experiences in the pursuit of good quality of life (Smith & Parker, 2015).

Human becoming Strengths and Weaknesses

The theory considers each person as a combination of spiritual, sociological, psychological and biological factors, and the existence of each person is based on mutual, continuous interactions with the environment. The theory identifies three characteristics of a human becoming nurse. Firstly, meaning characteristic that focuses on allowing each patient to freely choose a personal meaning in any situation so that the patient’s values are subjectively prioritized. In this case, the patient develops his/her reality by giving meaning to the lived experience of nursing care or disease progression. Secondly, rhythmicity characteristic that focuses on enabling each patient to co-create rhythmical patterns of relating in mutual processes with the environment, to include the language used, values and image. Thirdly, transcendence characteristic that focuses on enabling the patient to co-transcend multidimensionality by considering all possibilities, even emerging possibilities, while reaching out and exceeding previously set limits so that the patient is constantly transforming (Butts & Rich, 2018). 

The theory presents some strengths and weaknesses. It presents five strengths. The first strength is that it provides a framework that guides inquiry into other nursing theories. The second strength is that it provides research methodologies for enhancing human understanding and building new nursing knowledge. The third strength is that it is useful in nursing education. The fourth strength is that it provides useful guidelines for nursing practice. The fifth strength is that it differentiates nursing discipline from other disciplines. In addition, the theory presents four weakness. Firstly, it is not applicable to nursing care delivery in acute, emergent care situations. Secondly, it requires experience and is not accessible to novice nurses. Thirdly, it does not apply nursing processes. Fourthly, it does not produce quantifiable results thus making it difficult to compare patients (Butts & Rich, 2018).

Challenges to Parse’s Approach

There is a significant challenge is applying Human Becoming Theory in daily nursing activities. The challenge is on how to allocate the scare resources, particularly when considering the excessive biomedical needs that patients have, nursing shortage and financial crises facing health care organizations. Organizations