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CHAPTER 32 Phil Barker 637

the promotion of growth and development” (Barker Person
& Whitehill, 1997, p. 17) and present and future Within the Tidal Model, interest is directed toward a
direction (Barker & Buchanan-Barker, 2007a). Barker phenomenological view of the person’s lived experi-
extended Peplau’s original definition, clarifying the ence, and his or her story. “Persons are natural philoso-
purpose of nursing as trephotaxis from the Greek: phers and meaning makers devoting much of their lives
“the provision of the necessary conditions for the to establishing the meaning and value of their experi-
promotion of growth and development” (Barker, ence and to constructing explanatory models of the
1989, 2009). He emphasizes the distinction between world and their place in it” (Barker, 1996b, p. 4). Nurses
“psychiatric” and “mental health” nursing. When are able to see and appreciate the world from the per-
nurses help people explore their distress, in an attempt son’s perspective and share this with the person. People
to discover ways of remedying or ameliorating it, they are their stories. “The person’s sense of self and the
are practicing psychiatric nursing. When nurses help world of experience, including the experience of others
the same people explore ways of growing and develop- is inextricably tied to their life stories and the various
ing, as persons, exploring how they presently live meanings they have generated” (Barker, 2001c, p. 219).
with and might move beyond their problems of People are in a constant state of flux, with great capacity
living, they are practicing mental health nursing. for change (Buchanan-Barker & Barker, 2008) and
(Barker, 2003a; 2009). engaged in the process of becoming (Barker, 2000c).
Nursing is a human service offered by one group They live within their world of experience represented
of human beings to another. There is a power dy- in three dimensions: (1) world, (2) self, and (3) others.
namic in the “craft of caring,” one person has a duty Life is a developmental voyage, and people travel
to care for another (Barker, 1996b, p. 4). Nursing is a across their “ocean of experience.” This voyage of dis-
practical endeavor focused on identifying what peo- covery and exploration can be risky, and people have
ple need now; collaboratively exploring ways of both a fundamental need for security and a capacity to
meeting those needs; and developing appropriate adapt to changing circumstances. The “journey across
systems of human care (Barker, 1995, 2003a). The our ocean of experience depends on our physical body
proper focus of nursing is the “need” expressed by on which we roll out the story of our lives” (Barker &
the person-in-care, which “can only be defined as Buchanan-Barker, 2007a, p. 21). The Tidal Model
a function of the relationship between a person-with- “holds few assumptions about the proper course of
a-need-for-nursingand a person-who-has-met-that- a person’s life” (Barker, 2001a, p. 235). Persons are
need”. (Barker, 1996a, p. 241; Barker, Reynolds, & defined in relations, for example, as someone’s mother,
Ward, 1995, p. 389). These responses are the phe- father, daughter, son, sister, brother, friend and also in
nomenological focus of nursing (Barker, Reynolds, & relation with nurses.
Ward, 1995, p. 394; Peplau, 1987); a focus on human
responses to actual or potential health problems Health
(American Nurses Association, 1980). These may Barker provides the provocative definition of health
range across behavior, emotions, beliefs, identity, put forth by Illich (1976) as “the result of an au-
capability, spirituality, and the person’s relationship tonomous yet culturally shaped reaction to socially-
with the environment (Barker, 1998a). created reality. It designates the ability to adapt to
Nursing’s exploration of the human context of be- changing environments, to growing up . . . to heal-
ing and caring supports nursing as a form of human ing when damaged, to suffering and to the peaceful
inquiry. Being with and caring with people is the pro- expectation of death. Health embraces the future . . . in-
cess that underpins all psychiatric and mental health cludes the inner resources to live with it (p. 273).
nursing, and this process distinguishes nurses from all Health is a personal task where success is “in large
other health and social care disciplines (Barker, 1997). part the result of self-awareness, self-discipline,
“Nursing complements other services and is congru- and inner resources by which each person regulates
ent with the roles and functions of other disciplines in his/her own daily rhythms and actions, his/her
relation to the person’s needs” (Barker, 2001c, p. 216). diet, and his/her sexuality” (Illich, 1976, p. 274).