BETTY NEUMAN

SYSTEM MODEL
 Born on a farm on Lowell, Ohio in 1924.

She received her BS in Nursing in 1957 at People's

Hospital, Ohio. Her MS in Mental Health, Public
Health Consultation from UCLA in 1966 and she
holds a PhD in clinical psychology.

Her teaching experience includes mental health,

consultation and organization, leadership, and
counseling.

As a mental health counselor, she developed her

nursing model of the “whole person approach”
based on a system adaptation framework.
 
 
 NEUMAN’S SYSTEM
MODEL
ü The model was initially developed
in response to graduate nursing
students’ expression of a need for
course content that would expose
them to a breadth of nursing
problem prior to focusing on
specific nursing problem areas.
ü The model was published in 1972
as a “Model for Teaching Total
Person Approach to Patient
Problem,” in Nursing Research. It
was later refined and was
published in the first edition of
Conceptual Models for Nursing
Practice in 1974.
 comprehensive and dynamic. The model is
multidimensional view of individual, groups
(families), and communities, who are in
constant interaction with environmental
stressors. Essentially, the model focuses on
the client’s reaction to stress and the factors
of reconstitution or adaptation. It is
considered an appropriate model not only
for nursing but also for all health
professions.

Neuman’s conceptual approach is the result

of synthesis of knowledge from several
theoretical sources, including: de Chardin,
Marx, Gestalt, Selye, von Bertalanffy, and
Caplan.
 NEUMAN'S THEORY AND
THE FOUR MAIN CONCEPT

1. INDIVIDUAL/ HUMAN- focused



on the philosophy that each human

is a “total person” as a client and
that this is multidimensional, a
composite of physiological,
psychological, sociocultural,
developmental and spiritual
variables. The interaction of theses
variable with the lines of normal
defense and flexible resistance,
combined with multiple stressors,
provide the essence of “total person
2. SOCIETY/ENVIRONMENT – the


concept on which humans are in

constant interaction with their
environment. It is defined as those
internal and external forces
surrounding the human at any given
point in time. The created
environment is intra-, inter- and
extrapersonal.



 Stressors: More than one
stressors can occur at a time

• Extrapersonal – forces that occur

outside the system
• Interpersonal – forces occurring
between one or more individuals
• Intrapersonal – forces that occur
within the individual
3. HEALTH/WELLNESS – Neuman does not define


health but stated that through an interaction/adjustment

process, a person retains varying degree of balance and
harmony between internal and external environments.


WELLNESS – is equated with optimal stability of the

normal line of defense; state of saturation; of inertness
free; and of disruptive needs
ILLNESS – state of insufficiency; disruptive needs are

yet to be satisfied.
RECONSTITUTION – can be equated with
moving from “variances from wellness” to desired
wellness levels and client stability which is viewed
holistically.

4. NURSING – is a “unique
profession” that concerns itself with
all the variables affecting human
response to stressors, with a primary
concern for the total person. Its goal
is the retention and attainment of
client system stability.
Neuman has systematized the nursing

process into three categories of

nursing diagnosis, nursing goals, and
nursing outcomes.



• Reaction: can begin at any point at
which a stressor is either expected
or identified.
• Primary Prevention –If a reaction
had not occurred, the intervention
would enter at the primary level.
Its goal is to prevent the stressor
from penetrating the normal line of
defense or lessen the degree of
reaction by reducing the possibility
of encounter with stressors and by
strengthening the line of defense.
•
• Secondary Prevention– If primary
prevention is not possible and a
reaction has occurred, intervention
would begin at the secondary
prevention. Deals mainly with early
case finding, early treatment of
symptoms and attempts to
strengthen the internal lines of
resistance to reduce reaction.
Nursing interventions at this level can
begin at any point where stress
reaction is recognized. It may
progress beyond or below the usual
level of wellness or line of defense.
• Tertiary prevention– is the
intervention that follows that active
treatment plan when reconstitution
or some reasonable degree of
stabilization has occurred. The goal
is to maintain this adaptation in
strengthening the lines of
resistance, thus preventing future
occurrences and by optimum use of
the system's total resources,
including the internal and external