The grand nursing theory developed by Martha E. Rogers(her Science of Unitary Human Beings(pivots on the concept of wholeness. Rogers' (1970, p. 47, as cited in Abiko, 1999, p. 170) theory of nursing was grounded in her perspective on human beings; she stated, "Man is a unified whole possessing his own integrity and manifesting characteristics that are more than and different from the sum of his parts." Rogers (1992, p. 28, as cited in Wright, 2006, p. 229) wrote that "the art of nursing is the creative use of the science of nursing for human betterment" and created a new worldview in which the focus was on "unitary, irreducible human beings and their environment." Reality for Rogers was "undivided wholeness" (Carboni, 1995, p. 72). In fact, wholeness, for her, was the foundation of health. Rogers (1990, p. 10, as cited in Carboni, 1995, p. 73) "specified that the use of the term health within the context of unitary irreducible human beings and their respective environs refers to health as 'whatever we mean by the whole.'" Rogers' concept of wholeness is "oneness in which all that is merges in one totality (Carboni, 1995, p. 74).
Rogers recognized that people are whole individuals, not just a collection of body parts, and this is a revolutionary concept in today's healthcare environment geared toward symptoms and compartmentalized thinking. The application of Rogers' concept of wholeness to nursing can make a radical difference in how the nurse sees and treats the patient. A nurse looking at a patient as "the appendectomy in room 405" is seeing the patient in terms of the procedure being done for him, not as an individual with a soul and a unique composite of sensibilities, concerns, and needs. If the nurse treats the patient according to her limited view of him, just as an appendectomy patient, she may be missing the most salient needs he has and bypassing the interventions that will really help him get bet...