Such findings re-emphasise a whole new world of nursing practice possibilities. It has been suggested that other interventions, such as music (Smith, 1986), humour or meditation can be used by the nurse to promote positive human-environment field patterning (Malinski, 1986d).

The Principle of Helicy was explored by Floyd (1983) who made the prediction that the amount of wakefulness and the number of sleep-wakefulness cycles increase (in other words, there will be an increasing diversity of human and environmental field patterns) when "persons experience a deviation in the rhythmic relationship with their environment" (Floyd, 1983). Shift rotation and admission to hospital were two variables that were identified as possibly causing diversity in field patterning. Sixty shift workers and 35 hospital in-patients took part in the study which found that those with diversity in field patterning did indeed sleep less (0.3 hour and 1.0 hour less per cycle for shift workers and hospital in-patients respectively) than those without such diversity. The number of sleep-wakefulness cycles did not increase for hospital in-patients although it did increase for shift workers. Floyd (1983) indicates that this kind of information may be useful when planning "optimum systems for around-the-clock delivery of nursing". It also indicates that diversity in human and environmental field patterns occurs for individuals on admission to hospital and that nurses should take steps to promote positive human-environmental field re-patterning. In another study that examined the principle of helicy, Rawnsley (1986) found that perceptions of the speed of time was slower for those who were dying and that this could be an explanation for the lack of patience often experienced by the terminally ill.

The Principle of Resonancy, in which it is suggested that there is a continuous change from lower to higher frequency wave patterns in human and environmental field patterns, was studied, for example, by Butcher and Parker (1988). They postulated that the technique of guided imagery could promote resonancy and that the change from lower to higher frequency patterning could be a theoretical explanation for feelings such as relaxation and timelessness. Sixty adult subjects were assigned to an experimental group (who listened to a guided imagery tape) or a control group (who listened to an educational tape). The experimental group had a significantly lower score on the specially developed Time Metaphor Test than the control group, indicating a greater sense of timelessness or higher frequency wave pattering. Subjective opinions from both groups confirmed these results. The authors state that these results illustrate "the potential of the Science of Unitary Human Beings for providing a scientific rationale for the use of pleasant guided imagery in nursing practice" (Butcher and Parker, 1988) which can promote harmony, relaxation and well-being.

It has been stated that Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings offers a view of nursing that is consistent with the current prevailing world view of holism and ecological concern (Cowling, 1986a) and in a sense was, and perhaps still is, ahead of its time. Using the Science of Unitary Human Beings with all its implications for nursing practice, education and research may be one way of firmly embracing the ideology of the ‘new age’ and to keeping abreast of these beliefs.

The above examples of empirical explorations of the principles of homeodynamics show how the Science of Unitary Human Beings can act as a potentially usefulprovide the philosophical framework for the development of research studies that may influence the development of nursing practice. But there are also other areas where the Science of Unitary Human Beings has had a direct application to nursing practice and education.

Many examples have been given of the direct application of the conceptual framework in nursing practice. In discussion and position papers and in those describing accounts of care delivery, Bradley (1987) and Hover-Kramer (1990) promote the importance of the concept of energy fields and its potential operationalization using techniques such as therapeutic touch (although the pioneering work of Dolores Krieger (1979), the foremost authority on therapeutic touch, should not be regarded as having directly evolved from the work of Rogers). Whelton (1979) presented a comprehensive and detailed but far from clear assessment and care plan based on the Science of Unitary Human Beings. It was shown to be useful in guiding nursing intervention and predicting outcomes in the examples given, that is, the care of a patient with decreased cardiac output, diabetes and hypertension and in the care of a patient with a recurrent meningioma. However, there is no evidence in the literature that this care plan has been used since it was first published. Another assessment tool to be used in nursing practice has been developed by Barrett (1988) who has also stated that nurses need to assess "pattern manifestation" and to promote "deliberative mutual patterning" (Barrett, 1990c). The nursing care of an adolescent with a "borderline personality disorder" has been described by Thompson (1990) who used the conceptual framework to describe the interpersonal processes of transference and counter-transference that existed. Further explorations of patient care scenarios using the Science of Unitary Human Beings are given by Meehan (1990) who described caring for a man with pain due to metastatic cancer, Madrid (1990) who gave a moving account of successful deliberative mutual patterning in the care of a patient who was in considerable discomfort due to pain, hospitalisation and gastrointestinal bleeding and Chapman (1994) who described an ICU incident.

This literature review is by no means fully comprehensive (more extensive reviews can be found in Barrett, 1990a; Daily et al, 1989 and later on in this work). However, in summary, the aforementioned literature provides initial evidence that points to the expanding adoption of the Science of Unitary Human Beings as a framework to guide nursing practice in both the relative present and the relative future.

Rogers wrote, over 30 years ago, that "education is for the future, yesterday’s methods will not suffice for tomorrow’s needs" (Rogers, 1961). If this statement can be accepted and if it is, If nursing education is to positively respond to the need to educate nurses for the future, to successfully adopt to the changing needs and demands of a new age, ecologically concerned society, then it could consider the possibililities that arise from the adoption of will need to adopt a framework such as that described here.