Neuman systems model
The Neuman Systems Model (NSM) is a comprehensive, holistic framework used in nursing to address prevention and treatment. Developed by Betty Neuman in 1972, the model integrates various dimensions of patient care, focusing on the interplay between patients and their environments. It categorizes health stressors and responses, emphasizing the importance of maintaining patient stability through defined lines of defense. The model incorporates four nursing metaparadigms: humans, environment, health, and nursing, highlighting their interconnectedness in health outcomes.
In practice, the NSM involves a structured nursing process that includes assessment, diagnosis, goal setting, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Prevention is a core component, divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary strategies aimed at managing stressors and promoting health. Although the model has evolved through multiple editions, some areas, such as the family and community dimensions, still require further clarification and research to enhance its applicability. Overall, the NSM remains a vital tool for nursing professionals, facilitating a patient-centered approach to care that acknowledges the multifaceted influences on health and wellness.
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Neuman systems model
The Neuman systems model (NSM) is a holistic approach to prevention and treatment in nursing. The model serves as an all-inclusive guide in nursing practice, education, research, and administration. Nurse, family therapist, and educator Betty Neuman (1924–2022) established the theory behind the NSM in a 1972 publication. The first and fifth editions of the model were published in 1974 and 2010, respectively. The model catalogs health stressors and responses based on the patient stability and lines of defense (LOD). Normal LOD are used as the standard for health deviations given that certain relationships between specified client variables can affect the client and are then compared to the normal LOD. Prevention and stress reduction are major components of the NSM approach.
Background
The NSM integrates four nursing metaparadigms—humans, environment, health, and nursing. Patients are assessed based on physiological, psychological, sociocultural, spiritual, and developmental variables, which are seen as interconnected. The internal, external, and patient-created environments are also evaluated in terms of their effects on the patient’s recuperation. These environmental factors can affect the health and wellness, given that patient health leans toward illness or death if more energy is required than is available. Nursing concentrates on variables that affect a patient in response to an internal or external stressor and aims at reducing stressors to maintain the highest possible level of health. Such stressors may be known, unknown, or universal, and affect individuals’ normal LODs differently. When stressors overwhelm the patient’s flexible LOD (that is, their dynamic buffer system), those stressors can impair the person’s normal LOD. Once that occurs, certain lines of resistance (LORs)—protective, stabilizing factors like the immune system—trigger symptoms.
Prevention is used as an intervention in the NSM. There are three forms of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary prevention involves identifying known or possible stressors and helping the patient cope with them (strengthening their flexible LOD), whereas secondary prevention evaluates symptoms and then prioritizes interventions to minimize negative outcomes (strengthening their LORs). Tertiary prevention helps the patient to readjust to their normal LOD (a process known as "reconstitution") and to avoid recurrences.
Overview
The NSM divides the nursing process into the following steps: assessment, diagnosis, goal setting, planning, implementation, and evaluation. In the initial assessment stage, the nurse writes a nursing diagnostic statement recording the patient’s self-identified stressors (across all five variables), lifestyle patterns, medical history, self-care actions, fears, and expectations. The nurse also observes the patient’s stressors, relies on prior knowledge of similar cases, and assesses possible outcomes. Planning and implementation incorporate the primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention actions in fulfilling the desired health goals. Desired outcomes are identified and based on the nursing diagnoses, all of which are implemented and evaluated according to the suggested treatment method. Each suggested method of treatment and recommended medication is allocated, assessed, and altered, based on the patient’s initial pain levels and physical reactions. Certain treatments are continued until the patient has completely recuperated, after which new methods of treatment are applied or the patient is discharged.
Since its original publication, the model has been revised and published several times to preserve its standing in the ever-changing nursing and medicine practices. According to Neuman Systems Model Inc. trustee Jacqueline Fawcett, who has assessed the theory across several criteria, the model continues to maintain its internal consistency with regard to its principal intent, meaning, and purpose and that clarifications over time have strengthened its concepts and definitions. However, confusion persists with regard to some areas of the model—namely, the family, community, and social issue dimensions—because some definitions lack sufficient detail. Furthermore, additional research is needed because empirical findings have been inconsistent in their statistical significance and certain aspects of the theory are not logically congruent.
Bibliography
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"Betty Neuman’s System Model." Nursing Theories, Current Nursing, 12 Mar. 2020, currentnursing.com/nursing‗theory/Neuman.html. Accessed 13 Nov. 2024.
Hannoodee, Sally, and Amit S. Dhamoon. "Nursing Neuman Systems Model." StatPearls, NIH National Library of Medicine, 17 July 2023, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK560658/. Accessed 13 Nov. 2024.
Neuman, Betty. "Neuman Systems Model, Inc." NeumanSystemsModel.org, Neuman, 2017. Accessed 13 Nov. 2024.
Neuman, Betty, and Jacqueline Fawcett, editors. The Neuman Systems Model. 5th ed., Pearson, 2010.
Ume-Nwagbo, Pearl N., Sharon A. DeWan, and Lois W. Lowry. "Using the Neuman Systems Model for Best Practices." Nursing Science Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 1, 2006, pp. 31–35.