Application to Research and Education

Parse’s Practice Methodology

The goal of this practice methodology is the quality of life as described by the person and the family. It states that an individual’s or a family’s quality of life is different from that of another. The nurse respects each person’s or family’s own view of life and does not attempt to change that view to be consistent with his or her own perspective.

Dimensions and processes of Parse’s practice methodology

1. Illuminating meaning is shedding light through uncovering the what was, is, and will be, as it is appearing now. It happens in explicating what is. Explicating is the process of making clear what is appearing now through languaging.

2. Synchronizing rhythms happens in dwelling with the pitch, yaw and roll, of the interhuman cadence. Dwelling with is giving self over to the flow of the struggle in connecting-separating.

3. Mobilizing transcendence happens in moving beyond the meaning moment to what is not yet. Moving beyond is propelling toward the possible in transforming. 

Three Major Essentials of research methodology for human becoming theory

1.       The basic assumptions of the theory

2.       The principles of the theory

3.       The principles of method construction

The basic assumptions underlying Parse’s research method

1. Humans are open beings in mutual process with the universe, referring to human-universe-health process.

2. Human becoming is uniquely lived by the individuals. People are capable of making reflective and prereflective choices in connection with others and the universe which represent their health.

3. Descriptions of lived experience enhance knowledge of human becoming. Individuals and families can describe their experiences to shed light on the meaning of health.

4. Researcher-participant dialogical engagement uncovers the meaning of phenomena as humanly lived.

5. The researcher, through inventing, abiding with logic, and adhering to semantic consistency during extraction-synthesis and heuristic interpretation processes, creates structures of lived experiences and weaves the structures with the theory in ways that enhances the knowledge base of nursing. 

RESEARCH

·        1. Enhances understanding of human lived experience, health, quality of life and quality of nursing practice

·        2. Expands the theory of human becoming

·        3. Builds new nursing knowledge about universal lived experiences which may ultimately contribute to health and quality of life

EDUCATION

·         1. Respond in a new way to nursing’s social mandate to care for the health of society by gaining an understanding of what is wanted from those living health experiences

·         2. Providing educational experiences for nursing and other health professional students focusing on diversity

·        3. Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice, Marilyn E. Parker

·        4. For the human becoming theory, the students would learn the meaning of structuring meaning, cocreating rhythms, cotranscending with the possibles

HUMAN BECOMING: GLOBAL PRESENCE

True presence is intentional reflective love, an interpersonal art grounded in a strong knowledge base.

     The human becoming school of thought is a guide for research and practice in settings throughout the world. Scholars from four continents have embraced the belief system and live human becoming in research and practice.

     In Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre’s multidisciplinary standards of care arise from the beliefs and values of the human becoming school of thought. There are other health centers throughout the world that have these beliefs and values as guides to health care.

     In South Dakota, a parish nursing model was built on the principles of human becoming to guidenursing practice at the First Presbyterian Church in Sioux Falls (Bunkers & Putnam, 1995; Bunkers,Michaels, & Ethridge, 1997). Also, the Board of Nursing of South Dakota has adopted a decisioning model based on the human becoming school of thought (Damgaard & Bunkers, 1998). Augustana College (in Sioux Falls) has human becoming as one central focus of the curricula for the accalaureate and master’s programs. It is the basis of Augustana’s Health Action Model for partnership in Community (Bunkers, Nelson, Leuning, Crane, & Josephson, 1999).

    A research project on the lived experience of hope was conducted using the Parse method, withparticipants from Australia, Canada, Finland, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The findings from these studies and the stories of the participants are published in the book Hope:An International Human Becoming Perspective (Parse, 1999). Approximately 300 participants subscribe to Parse-L, an E-mail listserv where Parse scholars share ideas. There is a Parse homepage on the World Wide Web that is updated regularly. Each year most of the 100 or more members of the International Consortium of Parse Scholars meet in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada, for a weekend immersion in human becoming research and practice.

     Members of the consortium have prepared a set of teaching modules (Pilkington & Jonas-Simpson, 1996) and a video recording (International Consortium of Parse Scholars, 1996) of Parse nurses in true presence with persons in different settings. Parse scholars present lectures and symposia regularly at international forums.

    The Institute of Human Becoming, founded in 1992, was created to offer interested nurses and others the opportunity to study with the author the ontological, epistemological, and methodological aspects of the human becoming school of thought. Toward that goal, the institute offers regular sessions devoted to the study of the ontology and the research and practice methodologies. All of the sessions have as their goal the understanding of the meaning of the human-universe-health process from a human becoming perspective.

SUMMARY

    Through the efforts of Parse scholars the human becoming school of thought will continue to emerge as a force in the twenty-first century evolution of nursing science. Knowledge gained from the basic research studies will be synthesized to explicate further the meaning of lived experiences. The findings from applied research projects related to evaluation of human becoming practice will be synthesized and conclusions drawn. These syntheses will guide decisions in creating the continuing vision for sciencing and living the art of the human becoming school of thought.

Contributors:

• Kristin Mariae Arbes
• Adeliza Acebes
• Noriel Par Arevalo

Reference:

• Marilyn E. Parker, (2001). Nursing Theories and Nursing Practices. F. A. Davis Company. Pg. 231-233.
• Ann Marriner Tomey, Martha Raile Alligood, (2006). Nursing Theories and Their Work. Mosby. Pg. 523-559., 6th Ed.
• Parse, R.R., Human becoming: Parse's theory of nursing. Nursing Science Quarterly. retrieved on September 8, 2015 from nsq.sagepub.com 
• http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/Rosemary_Pars_Human_Becoming_Theory.html
• The Nurse Theorists: 21st-Century Updates—Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, Jacqueline Fawcett, RN; PhD; FAAN