Åbo Akademi University, Department of Caring Science
VARISTO HANNELE: Virginia Henderson´s idea of caring – An examination of her definitions of nursing and the unique function of the nurse
Master's thesis, 83 pages
Supervisor: Professor Katie Eriksson
February 1995
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Key words: Virginia Henderson, definition, nursing, caring, nurse´s function, the history of ideas.
The purpose of this thesis is to find the idea of caring in Virginia Henderson´s definition of nursing and the unique function of the nurse and to follow the development of these definitions.
The definitions are examined from a perspective of caring science and of the history of ideas. According to Wilenius (1981) there are three processes following each other in the approach to the history of ideas: the critical-analytic process, which examines the content and structure of the idea; the genetic-phenomenological process, which searches the origin of the idea and the process of history of society, which combines the idea with the historical process and the culture. In these processes Algulin´s (1986) analyzeprocessmodel is used.
The material for this research is publications of Virginia Henderson, where definitions of nursing are presented.
The result of the analyze is that Virginia Henderson during the years 1939 to 1978 has reformulated her definitions many times. Sometimes one term has been changed or a sentence has been added or changed. The following definition from 1955 (Harmer & Henderson, 4) is the most quoted and is also the definition that most often has reappeared in her own text.
"Nursing is primarily assisting the individual (sick or well) in the performance of those activities contributing to health, or its recovery (or to a peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge. It is likewise the unique contribution of nursing to help the individual to be independent of such assistance as soon as possible."
The central idea of the definition is the desire of man to be complete and to be independent in one´s own way. The unique task of nursing is to assist in re-establishing the wholeness.
Virginia Henderson has used the term 'nursing' in her writings, but the content has the same meaning as 'caring' today. She says the nurse take care with her head, heart and hand, and if any of these are separated the care will diminish.
Virginia Henderson has in a remarkable way affected the nursing care and the nursing education by her definitions and the basic principles of nursing. The nursing practice, the nursing education and the nursing research has been influenced towards science by her.
I dare to state that Virginia Henderson has been an example for many nursing scientists and that her ideas have influenced them.