Throughout her career, Dr. Parse has made outstanding contributions to the discipline and profession of nursing through progressive leadership in nursing knowledge development, research, education, and practice. She has explored the ethics of human dignity, set forth humanbecoming tenets of human dignity (Parse, 2010), and developed teaching-learning (Parse, 2004), mentoring (Parse, 2008b), leading-following (Parse, 2008a, 2011a), community (Parse, 2003, 2012b), and family (Parse, 2009a) models that are used worldwide. She has published 9 books (Morrow, 2012b; Parse, 1974, 1981, 1985, 1987, 1995, 1998, 1999a, 2001b, 2003) and more than 150 articles and editorials about matters pertinent to nursing and other health-related disciplines. Dr. Parse has shared her knowledge in over 300 local, national, and international presentations and workshops in more than 35 countries on 5 continents. Her works have been translated into many languages, and she consults throughout the world with nursing education programs and health care settings that are utilizing her work to guide research, practice, leadership, education, and regulation of quality standards. She has planned and implemented many international conferences on nursing theory, the humanbecoming school of thought, qualitative research, and quality of life.

Parse has chaired over 40 doctoral dissertations, guided over 300 students with creative research conceptualizations, and mentored faculty and students on qualitative and quantitative research proposals, grant applications, and manuscripts for publications. She developed basic and applied science research methods (Parse, 2001b, 2005, 2011b); conducted multiple qualitative research studies about living experiences of health and quality of life (such as hope, laughing, joy-sorrow, feeling respected, contentment, feeling very tired, and quality of life for persons with Alzheimer’s disease); and taught theory and research courses in institutions of higher learning, for example, Loyola University Chicago, University of Cincinnati, University of Dayton, University of South Carolina, and others.

Parse is an articulate, courageous, and vibrant leader with a strong vision and deliberate determination to advance the discipline of nursing. She is well-known internationally for her humanbecoming school of thought—a nursing perspective focused on quality of life and human dignity from the perspective of patients, families, and communities. She is an inspirational mentor whose diligent loving presence, consistent and willing availability, and respectful and gentle urgings have helped many seasoned and budding nurse scholars to pursue their dreams. Those who have had the honor of working with her as students and colleagues are honored to have been mentored by this truly outstanding nurse leader (Bournes, 2007; Cody, 2012).

The humanbecoming school of thought is grounded in human science proposed by Dilthey and others (Cody & Mitchell, 2002; Mitchell & Cody, 1992; Parse, 1981, 1987, 1996, 1998, 2007b, 2010, 2012b). The humanbecoming school of thought is “consistent with Martha E. Rogers’ principles and postulates about unitary human beings, and it is consistent with major tenets and concepts from existential-phenomenological thought, but it is a new product, a different conceptual system” (Parse, 1998, p. 4). She developed her theory while working at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh (during the 1960s and 1970s) when Duquesne was regarded as the center of the existential-phenomenological movement in the United States. Dialogue with scholars such as van Kaam and Giorgi stimulated her thinking on the lived experiences of human beings and their situated freedom and participation in life.

Parse synthesized the science of unitary human beings, developed by Martha E. Rogers (1970, 1992) with the fundamental tenets from existential-phenomenological thought, articulated by Heidegger, Sartre, and Merleau-Ponty and secured nursing as a human science. She contends that humans cannot be reduced to component parts and be understood. Rather, persons are living beings who are different from schemata that divide them. Parse challenges the traditional medical view of nursing and distinguishes the discipline of nursing as a unique, basic science focused on human experiences. She supports the notion that nurses require a unique knowledge base that informs their practice and research, knowledge of humanuniverse and health that is essential to fulfill their commitment to humankind (Parse, 1981, 1987, 1993, 2007b, 2010, 2012b).

She drew on Rogers’ principles of helicy, integrality, and resonancy and her postulates (energy field, openness, pattern, and pandimensionality) (Parse, 1981; Rogers, 1970, 1992). These ideas underpin Parse’s notions about persons as open beings who relate with the universe illimitably, that is, “with indivisible, unbounded knowing extended to infinity” (Parse, 2007b, p. 308), and who are indivisible, unpredictable, everchanging, and recognized by patterns (Parse, 1981, 1998, 2007b, 2012b).

From existential-phenomenological thought, Parse drew on the tenets of intentionality and human subjectivity and the corresponding concepts of coconstitution, coexistence, and situated freedom (Parse, 1981, 1998, 2007b, 2012b). She uses the prefix co on many of her words to denote the participative nature of persons. Co means together with, and, for Parse, humans can never be separated from their relationships with the universe—thus her 2007b conceptualizations of humanbecoming and humanuniverse as one word. Relationships with the universe include all the linkages humans have with other people and with ideas, projects, predecessors, history, and culture (Parse, 1981, 1998, 2007b, 2012b).

From Parse’s perspective, humans are intentional beings. That is, human beings have an open and meaningful stance with the universe and people, projects, and ideas that constitute lived experience. Human beings are intentional whose involvements are not random but are chosen for reasons known and not known. Parse says that being human is being intentional and present, open, and knowing with the world. Intentionality is also about purpose and how persons choose direction, ways of thinking, and acting with projects and people. People choose attitudes and actions with illimitable options (Parse, 1981, 1998, 2007b, 2012b).

The basic tenet, human subjectivity, means viewing human beings not as things or objects, but as indivisible, unpredictable, everchanging beings (Parse, 1998, 2007b) and as a mystery of being with nonbeing. Human beings live all-at-onceness as the becoming visible–invisible becoming of the emerging now (Parse, 2012b). Parse posits that humans’ presence with the world is personal and that humans live meaning as their becoming who they are. As people choose meanings and projects according to their value priorities, they coparticipate with the world in indivisible, unbounded ways (Parse, 1981, 1998, 2007b, 2012b). Persons are inseparable from the world and craft unique relationships. A person’s becoming is complex and full of explicit-implicit meaning (Parse, 1981, 1998, 2007b, 2012b).

Coconstitution means any moment is cocreated with the constituents of the situation (Parse, 1981, 1998, 2007b, 2012b). Human beings choose meaning with the particular constituents of day-to-day life. Life happens, events unfold in expected and unexpected ways, and the human being coconstitutes personal meaning and significance. Coconstitution surfaces with opportunities and limitations for human beings as they live their presence with the world, and as they make choices about what things mean and how to proceed. The term coconstitution refers to creating different meanings from the same situations. People change and are changed through their personal interpretations of life situations. Various ways of thinking and acting unite familiar patterns with newly emerging ones as people craft their unique realities.

Coexistence means “the human is not alone in any dimension of becoming” (Parse, 1998, p. 17). Human beings are always with the world of things, ideas, language, unfolding events, and cherished traditions, and they also are always with others—not only contemporaries, but also predecessors and successors. Humans are community (Parse, 2003). Indeed, Parse posits that “without others, one would not know that one is a being” (Parse, 1998, p. 17). Persons think about themselves in relation to others and how they might be with their plans and dreams. Connected with freedom, Parse describes an abiding respect for human change and possibility.

Finally, situated freedom means that human beings emerge in the context of a time and history, a culture and language, physicality, and potentiality. Parse suggests that human freedom means “reflectively and prereflectively one participates in choosing the situations in which one finds oneself as well as one’s attitude toward the situations” (Parse, 1998, p. 17). Humans are always choosing what is important in their lives. They decide the attention to give to situations, projects, and people. In day-to-day living, people choose and act on their value priorities, and value priorities shift as life unfolds. Sometimes acting on beliefs is as important as achieving a desired outcome. Personal integrity is intimately connected to situated freedom.

In 2007 and in 2012, Parse published important conceptual refinements for the humanbecoming school of thought. First, in 2007, she changed human becoming and human-universe to humanbecoming and humanuniverse. These changes, according to Parse (2007b), further specify her commitment to the indivisibility of cocreation. Parse’s new concepts of humanbecoming and humanuniverse demonstrate through language that there is no space for thinking that humans can be separated from becoming or the universe—these notions are irreducible.

In addition, Parse (2007b) specified four postulates that permeate all principles of humanbecoming. The four postulates are illimitability, paradox, freedom, and mystery. The four postulates further specify ideas embedded within Parse’s school of thought. Illimitability represents Parse’s thinking about the indivisible, unpredictable, everchanging nature of humanbecoming. Parse (2007b) stated, “Illimitability is the ‘unbounded knowing extended to infinity, the all-at-once remembering and prospecting with the moment’” (p. 308). Indivisible, unbounded knowing “is a privileged knowing accessible only to the individual living the life” (Parse, 2008e, p. 46). Paradox has always been affiliated with humanbecoming, and Parse’s bringing it forth as a postulate that permeates all theoretical principles emphasizes the importance of paradox with humanuniverse cocreation. She stated, “paradoxes are not opposites to be reconciled or dilemmas to be overcome but, rather, are lived rhythms …. expressed as a pattern preference” (Parse 2007b, p. 309), “incarnating an individual’s choices in day-to-day living” (Parse, 2008e, p. 46). Humans make choices about how they will be with paradoxical experiences and continuously make choices about where to focus their attention. For example, all humans live paradoxical rhythms of certainty-uncertainty, joy-sorrow, and others, and they move with the rhythm of their paradoxical experiences—at times focusing on certainty or joy, for instance, yet always having an awareness of living the uncertainty or sorrow inherent in situations. Likewise, freedom, although a cornerstone of Parse’s early thinking, is seen in a new light in her most recent thinking. Parse (2007b) stated that freedom is “contextually construed liberation” (p. 309). People have freedom with their situations to choose ways of being. Finally, mystery, the fourth postulate, is presented in a more specific way as something special that transcends the conceivable and as the unfathomable and unknowable that always accompanies the “indivisible, unpredictable, everchanging humanuniverse” (p. 309).

In 2012, Parse introduced new conceptualizations that further specify the meaning of the all-at-onceness of human experience from a humanbecoming perspective. Her belief system (ontology) underpinning humanbecoming “specifies that with humanuniverse the human is an august presence, a seamless symphony of becoming, living the emerging now. Becoming visible–invisible becoming of the emerging now is the living moment that brings to the fore the idea that meaning changes with each unfolding living experience incarnating the remembered with the prospected all-at-once” (Parse, 2012b, p. 44). The becoming visible–invisible becoming of the emerging now is the universe of histories and experiences and hopes and dreams that cocreate each moment, as humans live and shape their lives with their illimitable, unbounded knowing. Human living experiences surface moment to moment like waves surfacing from an ocean. What is becoming visible in human experience is what is happening in the moment that is explicitly known and described by the person living it. It is like waves that are swelling to the top of the ocean—visible for a moment, yet always shifting and changing and being cocreated with what is happening in the entirety of the ocean, invisible beneath the surface yet cocreating the waves that are becoming visible with their invisible becoming.

Based on her latest thinking, Parse (2007b, 2012b) refined the wording of the three principles of her theory as indicated in the following.

Research guided by the humanbecoming theory is meant to enhance understanding of the theoretical foundation, or the knowledge contained in the assumptions, postulates, principles, and concepts of humanbecoming (Doucet & Bournes, 2007; Parse, 1998, 2007b, 2012b). Research is not used to test Parse’s theory. Nurses assume people have unique meanings of life situations; persons have freedom; humans are indivisible, unpredictable, ever changing beings; and persons relate with others and the universe in paradoxical patterns. To test these beliefs would be comparable to testing the assumption that humans are spiritual beings or that people are composed of complex systems. These statements are abstract beliefs based on experience, observation, and beliefs about the nature of reality. The foundational or ontological statements are value laden, and, as noted earlier, a nurse either has an attraction and commitment to these foundational beliefs or not. The idea of a human being who is indivisible, unpredictable, everchanging and free to choose meaning is an assumption that is either believable or not. Assumptions about human beings are theoretical, not factual. A student or a nurse relates to one notion of human being or another. According to Parse (1991, 1999b, 2008c, 2008d, 2009b) this is why there is a need for multiple views; the discipline of nursing can and does accommodate different views and different theories about the phenomenon of concern to nursing—human-universe-health. In agreement with Hall, Parse (1993) stated the following when discussing the issue of testing the humanbecoming theory:

Therefore, research with Parse’s theory expands understanding about human living experiences and builds new knowledge about humanbecoming (Doucet & Bournes, 2007; Parse, 2012b). Knowledge of humanbecoming contributes to the substantive knowledge of the nursing discipline. Disciplinary knowledge is different from the practical or technical knowledge that nurses use in health care settings. Disciplinary knowledge is theoretical that identifies the phenomenon of concern for nurses—for Parse (1998, 2007b, 2012b) is humanbecoming. According to Parse (1998), “scholarly research is formal inquiry leading to the discovery of new knowledge with the enhancement of theory” (p. 59). The idea of new knowledge with enhancement of theory requires attention to clarify distinctions among different ways of thinking.

Parse (1998) synthesized “principles, tenets, and concepts from Rogers, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre …. in the creation of the assumptions about the human and becoming, underpinning a view of nursing grounded in the human sciences. Each assumption is unique and represents a synthesis of three of the postulates and concepts drawn from Rogers’ work and from existential phenomenology” (p. 19). Parse draws upon the work of other theorists to build a solid foundation for a new nursing science. Accordingly, the assumptions underpinning humanbecoming focus on beliefs about humans and about their becoming visible–invisible becoming, which is health (Parse, 2012a). Parse does not specify separate assumptions about the universe because the universe is illimitable and cocreated with humans—rather than separate from humans as evident in Parse’s (2012b) newly updated assumptions about humans and becoming:

Parse (1998; 2012b) synthesized the original nine assumptions about humans and becoming into four assumptions about humanbecoming as follows:

Three themes arise from the assumptions of the humanbecoming school of thought. These include (1) meaning, (2) rhythmicity, and (3) transcendence (Parse, 1998). The postulates illimitability, paradox, freedom,and mystery (Parse, 2007b) permeate the three themes. Meaning is borne in the messages that persons give and take with others in speaking, moving, silence, and stillness (Parse, 1998, 2012b). Meaning indicates the significance of something and is chosen by people. Outsiders cannot decide the meaning or significance of something for another person. Nurses cannot know what it will mean for a family to hear news of an unexpected illness or change in health until they learn the meaning it holds from the family’s perspective. Sometimes the significance of something is not known until meaning is explored and possibilities examined. Personal meanings are shared with others when people express their views, concerns, hopes, and dreams. According to Parse (1998) meaning is connected with moments of day-to-day living, as well as with the meaning or purpose of life.

Rhythmicity is about patterns and possibility. Parse (1981, 1998) suggests that people live unrepeatable patterns of relating with others, ideas, objects, and situations. Their patterns of relating incarnate their priorities, and these patterns are changing constantly as they integrate new experiences and ideas with what is becoming visible-invisible in the emerging now. For Parse, people are recognized by their unique patterns. People change their patterns when they integrate new priorities, ideas, and dreams, and show consistent patterns that continue like threads of familiarity and sameness throughout life.

Transcendence is the third major theme of the humanbecoming school of thought. Transcendence is about change and possibility, the infinite possibility that is humanbecoming. “The possibilities arise with …. [humanuniverse] …. as options from which to choose personal ways of becoming” (Parse, 1998, p. 30). To believe one thing or another, to go in one direction or another, to be persistent or let go, to struggle or acquiesce, to be certain or uncertain, to hope or despair—all these options surface in day-to-day living. Considering and choosing from these options is cotranscending with the possibles.

Parse’s (1981, 1998, 2012b) principles are the assertions of the humanbecoming theory. Each principle interrelates the nine concepts of humanbecoming: (1) imaging, (2) valuing, (3) languaging, (4) revealing-concealing, (5) enabling-limiting, (6) connecting-separating, (7) powering, (8) originating, and (9) transforming (Figure 24–1). Research projects generate structures that further specify relationships among theoretical concepts. For example, Naef and Bournes (2009) studied the experience of waiting for persons on a list to receive a lung transplant, and presented the following theoretical structure: “The lived experience of waiting is enabling-limiting the imaging-valuing of powering connecting-separating” (Naef & Bournes, 2009, p. 145). Theoretical structures are used to enhance understanding of phenomena as readers consider participant descriptions that connect to the concepts of humanbecoming. For more humanbecoming research, the reader is referred to an overview of studies (Doucet and Bournes, 2007 and other recent publications; Baumann, 2008, 2012b; Bournes & Milton, 2009; Bunkers, 2010b, 2012a; Condon, 2010a, 2010c; Doucet, 2012a, 2012b; Florczak, 2010, 2012; Maillard-Struby, 2012; Morrow, 2010; Parse, 2005, 2008e, 2009c, 2011b, 2012b; Peterson-Lund, 2012; Smith, 2012).

The inductive-deductive process was central to the creation of the humanbecoming theory. The theory originated from Parse’s personal experiences with her readings and in nursing practice. She deductively-inductively crafted major components of humanbecoming from the science of unitary human beings and existential-phenomenological thought. She intuitively and methodically derived the assumptions, postulates, principles, concepts, and practice and research methodologies of the humanbecoming school of thought. Figure 24–1 illustrates how the principles, concepts, and theoretical structures connect in simplicity and complexity. Abstraction and complexity create possibility for growth, scholarship, and sustainability.