Nursing Theorist Imogene King and Her Contributions Research Paper

History and Overview of the Theorist

The nursing theorist was born Imogene King in 1923. She was the lastborn in a family of three children. She studied in the small village of West Point called Lowa. Her childhood dream to become a teacher was sustained until she completed her pre-college school. King was not comfortable in her town setting despite the motivation to become a teacher. The offer by her uncle to train as a nurse presented the timely chance to move out of West Point. King received her Nursing Diploma at the age of twenty-two years. When she received the diploma from St. Johns Nursing Hospital in Missouri, she had no idea that three decades down the line she would be the most esteemed Nursing Theorist. At the age of twenty-five years, she received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Education. This includes minors in Philosophy and Chemistry from the same nursing hospital.

King practiced as a nurse for the next nine years while pursuing a Master of Science in Nursing at the hospital university. The challenges that she faced did not deter her from pursuing Doctorate in Education at Teachers College in Columbia University. She received the doctorate in 1961 after which she fully engaged in her career as a professional nurse. Her tenacity to be a teacher was reflected when she was appointed as the Superintendent Director of the Ohio State University specifically the School of Nursing. Between 1961 and 1980, she was appointed an Educator at St. Johns University, South Florida University and Loyola University thus further demonstrating her urge to be a teacher (Pamela, 2009). She demonstrated her prowess in nursing education when she published Toward a Theory for Nursing: General Concepts of Human Behavior. This was followed by A Theory for Nursing: Systems, Concepts, Process. King’s Theory of Goal Attainment developed when she sought to respond to her own concerns including “The goal of nursing, roles of a nurse and the expansion of nurses understanding to offer quality care.” After receiving multiplicity of honors during practice, King passed on 24 December 1997.

Major Components of the Theory

The major components of the theory are discussed below.

Man

The theory begins with the individuals having health needs that are categorized into three. First, it is necessary to have health information, which is functional. Second, there is need for healthcare to aim at the prevention of sickness. Third, there is need for healthcare when individuals lack the capacity to assist themselves. The individual’s discernment of the needs is influenced by a variety of factors including the consciousness that one exists, growth and maturity, body image as well as knowledge. In this concept, the objective of the individual is to gratify the needs. For the individual to achieve this one ought to ask for assistance from other sources. When the individual opts to consult a nurse, the perception of the nurse is influenced through the constituents present in the individual. This develops interaction between the individual and the practitioner whether verbal or non-verbal.

Health

According to King, health is the state of being complete and functional. These include being communal, conscious, coherent, reactive, purposeful, perceptive, action and tome oriented. The interference of the said holistic and practical state results in illness. King acknowledges the capacity of an individual to “constantly regulate to the interior and exterior stressors” through the optimization of accessible resources to attain “the optimum potentiality for daily existence”. King held the position that the objective of nursing is to assist persons in maintaining their wellness in order to function properly.

Nursing

King viewed nursing as the process of consistent and active human interaction between the individual and the nurse via verbal and non-verbal communication. The communication should be targeted at establishing the common objectives of attaining care for the individual (Clarke et al., 2009). This can be attained by agreeing upon the methods of attaining the objectives founded on the common discernment of the prevailing nursing situation. King conceptualized this as the interpersonal system under the Theory of Goal Attainment.

Environment

This aspect forms the foundation for the interactions between the patient, the nurse and the surroundings. The surroundings include social settings, school, and church that the individual is in contact with throughout lifetime. The interior surroundings change energy thus allowing the individual to adapt to the exterior surrounding changes. The exterior surroundings include formal and informal societ