CHAOS THEORY AND SOME NURSING CONSIDERATIONS

The alleged synthesis of nursing and public health has not produced th e expected community-as-client emphasis. Public health is characterize d as disease-focused, with masculine domination, using a causal model. The explanatory model of chaos challenges nurses to reexamine nursing 's theoretical base by questioning assumptions associated with linear thinking. The selected chaotic concepts of aperiodicity, attractors, s ensitive dependence on initial conditions, phase space, and fractals a re discussed here. Each concept's connection to physics and mathematic s is cited and considerations for nursing science are outlined. Conclu sions include redefining health, nursing, and community in chaotic ter ms and renaming nursing practice, which has this aperiodic and holisti c paradigm, as ecologic health nursing.