Summary
Contents
As nursing expands its scientific base and moves into more qualitative approaches, it is important that nursing students have the opportunity to know more about the nurse theorists that offer qualitative theories and methods. One such theorist is Margaret Newman. In Margaret Newman, Joanne Marchione offers an exceptional discussion on this preeminent nursing theorist. Marchione skillfully describes the origin of Newman's theory, the assumptions underlying the theory, the major concepts of meta-paradigm of nursing–including the nursing process–and propositions of the conceptual model itself. Also included are examples for application to practice and research (based on the author's years of continuous experimentation and application of Newman's theory), a bibliography of classic works, critiques and research, and a glossary of important terms.
Propositions
Propositions
Propositions are ideas brought forward for consideration, acceptance, or adoption. They are declarations of the design or intention of a theory. They are statements of truth to be demonstrated or operations to be performed.
The fundamental proposition in Newman's model is the view that health and illness are synthesized as health. In this proposition, Newman (1979, 1986) applies Hegelian dialectical logic; that is, “that thought proceeds by contradiction and the recognition of contradiction, the overall pattern being one of thesis, antithesis and synthesis” (Flew, 1984, p. 94). Newman proposes that one state of being (disease) unites with its opposite (nondisease) resulting in a synthesis of the two. The fusion of these two antithetical concepts brings forth a synthesis that can be regarded as health (Newman, ...