Community Assessment Using Cowling's Unitary Appreciative Inquiry: A Beginning Exploration (W. Richard Cowling, Iii) (Essay‪)‬

Community assessment using Martha Rogers' theory, the Science of Unitary Human Beings (SUHB) is utilized as an ongoing framework for the development of a profile of a small rural community in a southern state. This paper is an outgrowth of a unitary profile completed by RN-BSN students and faculty at Georgia Southern University and presented to a conference audience. Specifically discussed is community assessment utilizing Cowling's (1990) unitary appreciative inquiry (UAI) praxis methodology. Cowling's method provided the template used to explore and construct a unitary pattern profile of this community. The original presentation of the profile included multiple expressions of pattern manifestations from the community: visual, sound, taste, touch, and smell. Hopefully a sense of some of these experiences will emerge from this paper and will aid in conveying some of the sensation of 'being there' acid 'knowing' to the reader. To accomplish this, the reader is asked to go 'within' this community as the pattern unfolds. Keywords: Community nursing, Cowling's Unitary Appreciative Inquiry, Unitary Science, Martha Rogers