Ed.D. RN
Dr. King began her academic career at St. Louis University, spent several years at Loyola University in Chicago, and then went to the University of South Florida, where she is now professor emeritus. Imogene King's model is a model of three interacting systems: personal, interpersonal, and social. In her theory of goal attainment, she states that client goals are met through the transaction between nurse and client. The model can be applied to all settings. Her ideas were influenced by systems theory (von Bertalanffy) and interaction theory. Her model is based on systems theory but has also been classified as an interaction model. King describes her model as a conceptual system and the goal of nursing as bringing a person closer to a healthy state (King, 1997, 2001). The conceptual system has three interacting systems, the personal, the interpersonal, and the social. The nurse and the person interact toward a goal. The end-point of this interaction, which occurs over time, is transaction, at which the person's goal is met.
Imogene King's "General Systems Framework" theory, developed during the mid 1960s and first published in 1971, this theory emphasizes the importance of the interaction between nurses and patients. Views this interaction as an open system which is in constant interaction with a variety of environmental factors, points out the applicability of this theory to nursing today.
Imogene King's Interacting Systems Theory - Application in Emergency and Rural Nursing - Leigh Ann Williams, Graduate Student Capstone College of Nursing, The University of Alabama. (Online Journal of Rural Health Nursing)
NU-433 Nursing Theory, Imogene King - Imogene King completed her diploma nursing education in 1945, at St. John's Hospital in St. Louis, Mo. (MUW)
General Systems Framework - The central focus of King’s framework is man as a dynamic human being whose perceptions of objects, persons, and events influence