The processes of theory development have been the ongoing gift of many nursing scholars, theorists, and researchers. In expressing this new theory of Nursing as Caring, nurses have again courageously stepped forward to develop, articulate, and publish ideas that seem very new to many, and in doing so have risked to offer opportunity for a full range of responses to this work. I know Anne Boykin and Savina Schoenhofer invite with great anticipation responses from nurses and will appreciate opportunity for dialogue. [Illustration: Button] PREFACE 'The ideas which led to the development of theory of Nursing as Caring have their beginnings in our personal histories and came together when we met in 1983. As we participated in the work of establishing nursing as an academic discipline and creating a nursing curriculum grounded in caring at Florida Atlantic University, each of us learned to value the special insights brought by the other. We also discovered early on that we shared a deep devotion to nursing--to the idea of nursing, to the practice of nursing, to the development of nursing. Several years ago, we realized that our thinking had developed to the extent that we were working with more than a concept. Although we are well aware of an ongoing debate in nursing over technical versus philosophical connotations of theory, we characterize our work as a general theory of nursing developed in the context of our understanding of human science. While we are familiar with the formal concept of theory used in disciplines grouped in the physical and natural sciences, we believe that mathematical form is not an appropriate model for theory work in the discipline of nursing. Therefore, we do not present our work in the traditional form of concepts, definitions, statements, and propositions, but have struggled to find ways to preserve the integrity of nursing as caring through our expressions. Our thinking has been particularly influenced by the work of two scholars, Mayeroff and Roach. Both of these authors have given voice to caring in important ways--Mayeroff in terms of generic caring, and Roach in terms of caring person as well as caring in nursing. We are aware of other influences on our understanding of caring and caring in nursing, including Paterson and Zderad, Watson, Ray, Leininger, and Gaut. Our conception of nursing as a discipline has been directly influenced by Phenix, King and Brownell, and the Nursing Development Conference Group. While this is not an exhaustive listing of the scholars who have contributed to the development of our ideas, we have made a deliberate effort to review the evolution of our thinking and to recognize significant specific contributions.