title: When client means more than one: extending the foundational concept of person.
abstract: A second generation of nursing theory is emerging that clarifies and extends the original defining concepts. Definitions of person/client in specialties where practice focuses on more than single persons often include the term "aggregate." Analysis of this term reveals it to mean statistical summing of entities. Because this meaning does not incorporate interaction, the term is incompatible with domain assumptions. To retain the interaction condition, "client" for these specialties is extended to refer to both pluralities of persons and interactional units, such as families, groups, organizations, and communities.
mesh_terms: D003152:Community Health Nursing / Q000639:trends; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009729:Nursing / Q000639:trends*; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009736:Nursing Process; D009739:Nursing Services / Q000639:trends*; D009742:Nursing Theory; D010361:Patients