Essay title - The Betty Neuman Systems Model
Introduction
Betty Neuman created the nursing theory of System Models. Betty Neuman accomplished to become a nurse and graduated in 1947 from “Peoples Hospital School of Nursing.” She then moved to California were she obtained her major in public health and psychology in the University of California. Neuman furthered her education by obtaining a baccalaureate degree in nursing and then her master and doctoral degree in Mental Health and Psychology. Her education led her to work in the hospital atmosphere as a head nurse and also worked with children as a school nurse.
Betty Neuman worked in a variety of nursing roles. Betty Neuman was involved in clinical teaching about the importance of communicable disease, critical care of patients, and in areas of medical- surgical at the “University of Southern California Medical Center.” Betty Neuman was married and she helped her husband open a practice as well. She continues to work as a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist since her love was for mental and psychological health.
Betty Neuman achievements were very significant not only for her but for the nursing institutions and teachings. Betty Neuman’s first accomplishment along with a coworker donna auilina was to be the first two nurses to develop the nurse counselor role within Los Angeles-based community crisis center (. In 1970 she designed a conceptual model of nursing. Her model was about behavioral science concepts as problem identification and prevention. She then did her first publication in regard to the model in 1972. She is not only a nurse but a teacher. She traveled through her years teaching about her Systems Model.
Betty Neuman's System Model
Betty Neuman’s Systems Model was developed from general system theories that she read in regards to nature and living organisms. She obtained her theories from different theorist and philosophers. The first one was the Gestalt theory which described how a person maintains balance in their lives by homeostasis. Gestalt theory explained how life always has its ups and downs but if you learned to deal with the different situations maintain a balance the body remains in harmony and it prevents illness from occurring but if you do not deal with situations and you let them become imbalance then you become ill. She also viewed deChardin and Marx philosophy that suggests life as a whole and Selye’s view of stress. Selye’s theory was that stressors created tension in the body which could be positive or negative. A positive stress is the ability in some people to produce better quality of work under stressful situation. A negative stress would be an example of a single mother juggling work, children, school and everything life throws at you and eventually making your body break down and become sick. Betty Neuman also adapted Caplan’s conceptual model of protecting from harm occurring so your stress is reduced because the cause of stress never occurs. Caplan’s used three steps to prevention in his theory. Primary prevention which is to reduce the possibility of encountering stress. Secondary prevention is to reduce the effect of stress if you do encounter it. Tertiary prevention is reducing the outcome of the effects in your body that occurred do to the stress after you have undergone treatment.
Betty Neuman put together the four essential concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing in her assertion and assumption of her theory. Neuman’s assertion was concerning the stressors involved in individuals life and the way the person’s total well being responded to the stressors as well as the concept of preventing stress before it occurred. Betty Neuman listed her assumptions of the Neuman Systems Model by explaining that every person and situation is unique. She stated that every person had a line of defense that could be affected by stress. It could affect the person’s physiology, psychologically, sociocultural, developmentally and spiritually at any time without warning. Neuman stated as well that due to the energy required to support our life depending how much energy we use and do not intake can cause our defenses to become defenseless. She listed the prevention of stress following Caplan’s conceptual model in her work. Neuman’s system was based on constant energy exchange due to the environment constantly changing.
In her theory Neuman’s major assumptions was in regards to being a nurse, person, health, and environment. As a nurse she believed that nursing was more than caring for an illness. She believed that nursing was about viewing the patient as a whole and examining every part of them that can be affecting their health such as emotional and spiritual well being. In her model she presented the concept of a person as a client/client system that includes not only the patient but the individual surrounding the person and the interrelationships among them. In regards to health Betty Neuman believed in “Optimal wellness or stability indicates that total system needs are being met. A reduced state of wellness is the result of unmet system needs. The client is in a dynamic state of either wellness or illness, in varying degrees, at any given point in time.” Neuman believed that the person and health was affected by the environment. She stated that the environment was different factors that surrounded people and it could become internal or external factors. She stated that stress being on of the major significant environmental problem which could be identified as and internal, external or created stress. Internally is the stress within the person. The external factor was created by the outside situations people encountered and the created stress that life creates for each unique individual. Some of her other major concepts was the holistic approach and concept. She believed in caring for a patient’s spiritual, emotional, psychological, and mental well being not just the present illness. She applied her holistic believes in caring for her patient’s. She also used the open system to communicate with patients. Instead of just asking questions that containing short answers you ask questions that can give you complete information in regards to the patient’s situation. Neuman’s concept of content is that there are five variables (physiological, psychological, sociocultural, developmental, and spiritual) of man in interaction with the environment compromising the whole system of the client. Other major concepts she used was wellness which states that wellness exists when the parts of the client system interact in harmony and illness is when the disharmony among the parts of the system is considered illness. Normal line of defense, flexible line of defense and lines of resistance is about the state which we are in being able to sustain changes or be rapidly altered it is the protective buffer for preventing stressors and the lines of resistance is the body’s immune response trying to get rid of the stressor. Neuman also speaks about the concept of reconstitution and how it is the state of adaptation to stressors in the internal and external environment. Neuman presents the Systems Model to be clear, simple, general, precise, and with derivable consequences. The Systems Model concept is clear enough to be used congruent with traditional nursing values and used to explain the client’s dynamic state of equilibrium and the outcome of a stressor occurring. The theory is complex in nature but when it come to nurses understanding it and applying it is easy to do. Neuman’s theory is adaptable and comprehensive enough to be useful in all healthcare settings from patient care to administration settings. Derivable consequences come from the assessment of the client system that nurses use to process and implement intervention such as in the Caplan’s theory. Neuman’s model is clear and consistent with her work. Her curiosity and passion for mental and psychological framework has allowed her to be able to create the Systems Model. She explained the model in a simple and general way so that nurses ever were around the world can understand, use, and implement it into every day care for their patients. Neuman Systems Model provides a comprehensive foundation for scientific nursing practice, education, and research. The Neuman systems model includes spiritual variable. Today they are teaching more how spirituality healing can be beneficial to caring for a patient. The concept of caring for patients as a whole person not just the illness they have can in fact help heal a person more effective and it is being used more now and hopefully in the future. That is why Neuman's model has been accepted throughout the world in work places and in schools. The Systems Model was used to structure the World Health Organization’s Collaborative Center for Primary Health Care Nursing in Maribor, Yugoslavia (. The use of the Systems Model has been used to facilitate goal-directed, unified, and holistic approach to care for a patient. TheNeuman's theory works to diagnose what is making a person have an imbalance in energy and the Nursing process helps identified the illness, cure it and then prevent it from occurring again similar to the Systems Model. The model provides a systems perspective that enables nurses to assess and care for the family unit as a client to be able to evaluate the patients total wellbeing.
The Systems Model has been accepted in academic schools and is used in the schools curriculums to teach new student nurses to care for their patients. The efficiency and usefulness of Neuman’s model is being applied in every day teaching and care practices of patients. The Neuman systems model is proven to be scientifically holistic and understandable. The model provides markers for an integrated view of leadership and scholarship to enhance professional nursing activities appropriate for our modern century. In order for the theory to be part of modern medicine it needs to be reliable, flexible, truthful, and understood by the nurses of today. (Neuman, 1989). As I read about Neuman's theory I have evaluated my own philosophy. I believed that you became ill from a disease that entered your body and made you sick. I thought that the only way to get sick was by a virus or bacteria affecting you. After reading Neumann theory and reevaluating my personal life experiences I have change my philosophy. In other words she believed that the stresses of our environment, emotional, social, and physiological all affected our state of health. I believe she is correct. Our body could be free of diseases but if we are overwhelmed with stresses especially if they are emotional and our role in life is interchanged without notice or time to adapt or maybe we just don’t know how to adapt it can affect our health in more than one way. It not only can affect our health but those who surround us. The concept of having a balance between what we give and receive is the right concept but what happens when it does not balance then we become sick with headaches, colds, depression, shortness of breath, and even mentally we began to loose it. At this point our system is damaged do to our line of defense being reduced. It is up to our line of defense to fix it and the way I believed is by trying to fix some of the things in your life that can give support to your line of defense so that it can balance your energy intake and output. Even though Neumann’s theory was not just her theory it was different theories brought together to create one it has been a great model in society not only for nurses, students, and society but for my own personal use.
