Health as expanding consciousness: pattern recognition and incarcerated mothers, a transforming experience.

Margaret Newman's theory, Health as Expanding Consciousness (HEC), was used to examine the life pattern of two incarcerated mothers awaiting release from prison. Pattern recognition provided a way to approach understanding the experience of incarceration in a novel fashion. The process increased trust between the mothers and the nurse, and was a useful strategy in articulating the contribution of nursing science and humanistic care.