BETTY NEUMAN

Betty Neuman was born in 1924 on a 100-acre farm in Ohio. The middle of three children and the only daughter, she was 11 when her father died after 6 years of intermittent hospitalization for treatment of chronic kidney disease. His praise of his nurses influenced neumans view of nursing and her commitment to becoming an excellent bedside nurse. Her mothers work as a rural midwife was also a significant influence.

In 1947 Neuman graduated from the diploma program of People Hospital (now General Hospital Medical Center), Akron, Ohio. She received a B.S. in public health nursing (1957) and an M.S. as a public health-mental health nurse consultant (1966)from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1985 she was granted a Ph.D. in clinical psychology by Pacific Western University and has received an honorary doctorate from Granted Valley State in Michigan. She has practiced bedside nursing as a stuff, head, and private duty nurse in a wide variety of hospital settings. Her work in community settings has included school and industrial nursing, office nurse in her husband Krees private practice and counseling and crisis intervention in community mental health settings. In 1967, six months after completion of her M.S. degree, she became the faculty chair of the program from which she graduated and began her contributions as teacher, author, lecturer and consultant in nursing and interdisciplinary health care.

The focus of the Neuman model is based on the philosophy that each human being is a total person as a client system and the person is a layered multidimensional being. Each layer consists of five person variable or subsystems: Physiological- Refer of the physicochemical structure and function of the body. Psychological- Refers to mental processes and emotions. Socio-cultural- Refers to relationships; and social/cultural expectations and activities. Spiritual- Refers to the influence of spiritual beliefs. Developmental- Refers to those processes related to development over the lifespan.

Neuman sees health as being equated with wellness. She defines health/wellness as the condition in which all parts and subparts (variables) are in harmony with the whole of the client (Neuman, 1995).

The client system moves toward illness and death when more energy is needed than is available. The client system moved toward wellness when more energy is available than is needed

The environment is seen to be the totality of the internal and external forces which surround a person and with which they interact at any given time. These forces include the intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal stressors which can affect the persons normal line of defense and so can affect the stability of the system. The internal environment exists within the client system. The external environment exists outside the client system. The created environment which is an environment that is created and developed unconsciously by the client and is symbolic of system wholeness.

Neuman sees nursing as a unique profession that is concerned with all of the variables which influence the response a person might have to a stressor. The person is seen as a whole, and it is the task of nursing to address the whole person. Neuman defines nursing as action which assist individuals, families and groups to maintain a maximum level of wellness, and the primary aim is stability of the patient/client system, through nursing interventions to reduce stressors. Neuman states that, because the nurses perception will influence the care given, then not only must the patient/clients perception be assessed, but so must those of the caregiver (nurse). The role of the nurse is seen in terms of degree of reaction to stressors, and the use of primary, secondary and tertiary interventions

Content The variables of the person in interaction with the internal and external environment comprise the whole client system.

Basic structure/Central core the common client survival factors in unique individual characteristics representing basic system energy resources. The basis structure, or central core, is made up of the basic survival factors that are common to the species (Neuman,2002).

These factors include:- - Normal temp. range, Genetic structure.- Response pattern. Organ strength or weakness, Ego structure Stability, or homeostasis, occurs when the amount of energy that is available exceeds that being used by the system. A homeostatic body system is constantly in a dynamic process of input, output, feedback, and compensation, which leads to a state of balance.