Wilson (1972) believes that disciplines are forms of thought that have a characteristic approach to appropriate questions related to the subject. An attempt has been made to interpret nursing accordingly. The ‘subject’ of nursing is the patient. Because there are periods in life when a person cannot yet or can no longer perform one or more of the activities of daily living, each person could be said to have a dependent/independent continuum for each activity along which he can move in either direction according to circumstance. Appropriate questions concerning each patient or client would be: Where is he on each continuum? Why is he at that point? Where could or should he be? How can he be helped to move along any continuum? How can any movement be evaluated or measured? Use of the model could help to produce research‐minded nurses; could give value and prestige to helping patients with their activities of daily living; might help the profession to portray its relevant image; could reduce discrepancy between theory and practice, a common complaint made by today's vocal students; could help the profession to make overt its characteristic approach to its subject and thus help nursing to develop as a discipline.
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Nancy Roper (1976) studied this question.