INTRODUCTION
• Rosemarie Rizzo Parse first published the theory in 1981 as the "Man-living-health" theory (ICPS)
• The Parse theory of human becoming guides nurses In their practice to focus on quality of life as
it is described and lived (Karen &Melnechenko, 1995).
• The human becoming theory of nursing presents an alternative to both the conventional bio-
medical approach and the bio-psycho-social-spiritual (but still normative) approach of most other
theories of nursing. (ICPS)
• The human becoming theory posits quality of life from each person's own perspective as the
goal of nursing practice.(ICPS)
HISTORYANDBACKGROUND
• Rosemarie Rizzo Parse graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and earned her
Master’s and Doctoral degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.
• Parse served as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the Dean of the
Duquesne University School of Nursing. Between 1983 and 1993, she was a professor and coordinator of
the Center for Nursing Research at the City University of New York’s Hunter College.
• She was also a professor and the Niehoff Chair at Loyola University in Chicago from 1993 until
2006. Beginning in January 2007, she has worked as a consultant and visiting scholar at the New York
University College of Nursing.
• Parse is the founder and current editor of Nursing Science Quarterly, and is president of
Discovery International, Inc
• Her awards include two Lifetime Achievement Awards given from the Midwest Nursing Research
Society and the Asian American Pacific Islander Nurse’s Association.
• Society of Rogerian Scholars gave her the Martha E. Rogers Golden Slinky Award. Then, in 2008, she
received the New York Times Nurse Educator of the Year Award.
• Rosemarie Rizzo Parse first published the Human Becoming Theory in 1981, but it was originally
known as the Man-Living-Health Theory. The name changed to the Human Becoming Theory in 1992 to
remove the term“man”and instead change to all of human kind.
• This theory was released to help define each individual or groups idea of quality of life to be the
goal of nursing.
