Neuman's Systems Model Quiz

Ground Rules

• At the end of the course, the student should be able to:
  • Summarize the evolution of nursing globally and locally
  • Differentiate the roles of nurses in patient care

Theories in Nursing Profession

• A theory is a supposition or system of ideas that explains a given phenomenon
• Nursing theory is a conceptualization of some aspect of nursing that describes, explains, predicts, or prescribes nursing care

Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory

• Helps to explain how patients meet their own therapeutic self-care demands
• Shows how nurses assist patients by acting for them or guiding necessary physical and/or psychological support
• Self-care requisites (self-care needs) are measures or actions taken to provide self-care
• Therapeutic self-care demand refers to actions to maintain health and well-being
• 3 categories of self-care requisites:
  • Universal requisites: common to all people
  • Developmental requisites: result from maturation or are associated with conditions or events
  • Health deviation requisites: result from illness, injury, or disease or its treatment
• Self-care deficit occurs when self-care agency is not adequate to meet the known self-care demand
• 3 types of nursing systems:
  • Wholly compensatory systems: for individuals who are unable to control and monitor their environment and process information
  • Partly compensatory systems: for individuals who are unable to perform some, but not all, self-care activities
  • Supportive-educative (developmental) systems: for persons who need to learn to perform self-care measures and need assistance to do so
• Major assumptions of the theory:
  • People should be self-reliant and responsible for their care, as well as others in their family who need care
  • People are distinct individuals
  • Nursing is a form of action and interaction between two or more people
  • Successfully meeting universal and development self-care requisites is an important component of primary care prevention and ill health
  • A person's knowledge of potential health problems is needed for promoting self-care behaviors
  • Self-care and dependent care are behaviors learned within a sociocultural context

Neuman's Systems Model

• Developed by Betty Neuman (1924-2012), a community health nurse and clinical psychologist
• Based on the individual's relationship to stress
• Patients are cared for from a holistic perspective to ensure they are cared for as people and not simply ailments
• Person and Environment:
  • Open system that interacts with internal and external environment forces or stressors
  • Constantly changing, moving toward a dynamic state of system stability or illness of varying degrees
  • Three relevant environments: internal, external, and created
• Nursing Health:
  • Primary concern is to define the appropriate action in situations that are stress-related or concerning possible reactions of the client or client system to stressors
  • Condition or degree of system stability viewed as a continuum from wellness to illness
• Lines of resistance:
  • Internal factors that help the client defend against a stressor (e.g., increased WBC to combat infection)
  • Normal line of defense: state of equilibrium client's usual level of wellness
  • Flexible line of defense: protective buffer that prevents stressors from penetrating the normal line of defense
• Major assumptions of the theory:
  • The patient is in dynamic, constant energy exchange with the environment