The philosophy reflected in Henderson's theory is an integrated approach to scientific study that would capitalize on nursing's richness and complexity, and not to separate the art from the science, the "doing" of nursing from the "knowing", the psychological from the physical and the theory from clinical care.
Values & Beliefs
Based on what we've found, Henderson believed nursing as primarily complementing the patient by supplying what he needs in knowledge, will or strength to perform his daily activities and to carry out the treatment prescribed for him by the physician. She stronly believed in "getting inside the skin" of her patients in order to know what he or she needs. The nurse should be the substitute for the patient, helper to the patient and partner with the patient.
Like she said... "The nurse is temporarily the consciousness of the unconscious, the love of life for the suicidal, the leg of the amputee, the eyes of the newly blind, a means of locomotion for the infant and the knowledge and confidence for the young mother..."
Conceptual Model
Propositions
Nonrelational
The patient is an individual who requires help toward independence.
The nurse assists the individual, whether ill or not, to perform activities that will contribute to health, recovery, or peaceful death that the individual would perform unaided if he had necessary strength, will, or knowledge.
The process of nursing strives to do this as rapidly as possible.
The goal is independence
Nurses will seek and promote research, education, and work settings that facilitate this goal.
The nurse manages this process independently of physicians.
The nurse is, and should be legally, an independent practitioner and able to make independent judgments as long as he, or she, is not diagnosing, prescribing treatment for disease, or making a prognosis.
The nurse is the authority on basic nursing care.
Relational
The role and functions of professional nursing vary with the situation.
Central to nursing that seeks to help patients toward independence is empathetic understanding and unlimited knowledge.
Empathetic understanding grounded in genuine interest will lead to helping the family understand what a patient needs.
