This study takes off from the variety of adjectives currently in use to denote the meaning of nursing, notably the adjectives ‘individualised,’ ‘comprehensive’ and ‘patient-centred,’ and is aimed at identifying what each of these adjectives adds to the meaning of nursing in terms of opinions, beliefs and values as to what nursing does stand for and what not. To achieve this objective, the meaning of nursing is investigated within the framework of a theory of meaning rather than a theory of reference.

Following a detailed comparison between Grounded Theory and Practice Theory, it is decided that the former is the chosen method for this study because it is demonstrably best geared to the discovery of meaning in order to transform an indeterminate and meaningless situation into a determinate and meaningful situation.

On coding and analysing the data obtained from the extensive literature on nursing, each of the adjectives under investigation is shown not only to designate rather a different meaning of nursing, as is demonstrated by means of the concepts of nursing, nursing education and professional nursing that go with it, but also to amount to a specific model of nursing which can be differentiated from each other by means of their distinctively different implications.

Apart from that, the meanings of the adjectives under investigation are shown to add up to a conceptual history of modern nursing in the United States. For the sake of comparison, the research subsequently has been extended to the Nightingalian model of nursing.

The major conclusion to be drawn from the findings of this study is that, over the years, the meaning of nursing has changed dramatically. Consequently, the question can be raised as to what we are talking about when discussing the models of nursing identified in this study, or any model of nursing for that matter. It is not nursing as it exists in the real world but nursing as it is conceptualised.
An important corollary of this conclusion is that these models of nursing refer not so much to the supposedly timeless nature of nursing or the bare, value-free facts of nursing, whatever they may be, as to certain opinions, beliefs and values concerning nursing. These conclusions have significant implications for nursing science, nursing research, and, indeed, the nursing profession as a whole.