Martha E. Rogers

Martha Elizabeth Rogers (May 12, 1914–March 13, 1994) was an American nurse, researcher, theorist, and author. Rogers is best known for developing the Science of Unitary Human Beings and her landmark book, An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing.

Biography

Early life and education

She was born in Dallas, Texas, the oldest of four children of Bruce Taylor Rogers and Lucy Mulholland Keener Rogers. She began college at the University of Tennessee, studying pre-med (1931-1933) and withdrew due to pressure that medicine was an unsuitable career for a woman. She enrolled in the Knoxville General Hospital School of nursing with a friend and received her diploma in 1936 and the following year she completed her BS in public health nursing at George Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee.^[1]

Career

She went on to specialize in public health nursing, working in Michigan, Connecticut, and Arizona, where she established the Visiting Nurse Service of Phoenix, Arizona. She continued her education, receiving an M.A. in public health nursing from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1945, an M.P.H. in 1952 and a Sc.D. in 1954, both from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Between 1952 and 1975 she was a Professor and Head of the Division of Nursing at New York University, after which she was recognized as a Professor Emeritus in 1979.^[1] Following her retirement in 1975, Rogers continued to teach at New York University.

Death and afterward

She died March 13, 1994 and is buried in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1996, she was posthumously inducted into the American Nurses Association's Hall of Fame ^[2].

Nursing theory

Main article: Science of Unitary Human Beings

Rogers' theory is known as the Science of Unitary Human Beings. Its primary tenants include the following^[3]:

• Nursing is both a science and art; the uniqueness of nursing, like that of any other science, lies in the phenomenon central to its focus.
• Nurses long established concern with the people and the world they live is in a natural forerunner of an organized abstract system encompassing people and the environments.
• The irreducible nature of individuals is different from the sum of the parts.
• The integralness of people and the environment that coordinate with a multidimensional universe of open systems points to a new paradigm: the identity of nursing as a science.
• The purpose of nurses is to promote health and wellbeing for all persons wherever they are.

Publications

• Educational Revolution in Nursing (1961)
• Reveille in Nursing (1964)
• An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing (1970)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Tomey, A. M. & Alligood, M. R. (1998). Nursing Theorists and Their Work, 4th ed. Boston: Mosby
2. ^ http://www.nursingworld.org/MarthaElizabethRogers American Nurses Association
3. ^ Rogers, M. E. (1989). An Introduction to the Theoretical Basis of Nursing. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis

External links

• Rogerian Nursing Science Wikispace

Nursing portal

Persondata
Name	Rogers, Martha E.
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 12, 1914
Place of birth	Dallas, Texas
Date of death	March 13 , 1994
Place of death