What is Humanistic Nursing Theory?
Humanistic Nursing Theory, formulated by Josephine Paterson and Loretta Zderad, aims at the development of nursing theory through the study of the existence and reality of nursing. Humanistic Nursing Theory is based on the idea that nursing is an intersubjective transactional relationship between a nurse and a patient who are human beings existing in the world. The conceptual framework of the theory is existentialism and it presents a phenomenological method of inquiry that can be used by nurses to examine and understand their everyday practice. The theory serves as a vehicle to describe the essences of everyday nursing experiences. It is an inductive approach to theory building through exploration and description. Within the theory, humanistic nursing, viewed as a lived dialogue, offers a frame of orientation that places the center of the nurses universe at the nurse-patient intersubjective transaction. Insightful recognition of the lived nursing act as the point around which all nurs
