Quilting a Field Pattern Portrait Using Butcher’s Methodology

Abstract

The nursing profession acknowledges Martha Rogers to the foundation of nursing theory as a true visionary. Butcher developed a method that ensures scientific rigor in the application of Rogerian theory, unitary field pattern portrait (UFPP), which was used to explore new phenomenon of inquiry resulting in insights into Rogerian pandimensionality. In this intervention, an American Indian tradition, quilting, became a culturally appropriate way for a nurse to facilitate healing through the application of Rogerian theory. In Rogers’s theory of the science of unitary human beings, pattern unfolding becomes a way of knowing through expansion, evolving, blossoming, revealing, and openness. Rogers’s theory was used to encourage healing as an American Indian mother and deeply depressed daughter created a quilting story based on Rogerian principles: resonancy, helicy, and integrality. This aesthetic field patterning modality using Butcher’s UFPP captured the intervention as clients were engaged in health patterning through the American Indian tradition of quilting. Field notes with reflective journaling as recommended by Butcher assisted in the crystallization of a UFPP drawn from Rogerian nursing theory.