Nursing Case

The Roy Adaptation Model for Nursing had it's beginning with Sister Callista Roy in 1976. After working with Dorothy E. Johnson, Roy became convinced of the importance of describing the nature of nursing as a service to society. This prompted her to begin developing her model with the goal of nursing being to promote adaptation. Roy made derivations of these concepts for use in describing situations of people in both health and illness. Roy's stance on the philosophy emphasizes that nurses see persons as co-extensive with their physical and social environments. The factors that influenced the development of the model included: family, education, religious background, mentors, clinical experience. Roy Adaptation model emphasizes the human adaptive system and the environment. The individual or family are continually interacting with various forms of stimuli and using a variety of behaviors to cope. The nurse's goal in using this model is to assess behavior and factors that influence adaptation and use of the four adaptive modes (i.e., regulator coping subsystem, cognator coping subsystem, stabilizer subsystem control process, innovator subsystem control process) as ways to contribute to health, quality of life, and dying with dignity. The nurse not only enhances adaptive abilities, but also aims to integrate environmental interactions by enhancing conscious awareness and choice (Roy & Andrews, 1999). Nursing intervention is a key aspect of this model and this often occurs as the nurse assists the individual or family increase, decrease, remove or alter environmental stimuli. Roy has expanded her theory of adaptation over the years to include what she calls veritivity and encourages use of the model with groups of persons in relationship with one another (Roy & Andrews, 1999). Veritivity pertains to purposefulness of human existence, unity of purpose for humankind, activity and creativity for the common good, and meaning of life (Roy & Andrews).

The Roy adaptation model is based on the premise that a human being is both a psychological and biological being. Consequently, their external environment has a large impact on their well-being because they are always interacting with it. Within this framework there is the following: "a focus on awareness and notion of eliminating false consciousness, enlightenment to reach self-control, balance, and quietude" (Roy& Andrews, 1999, p.35). Roy explained, that adaptation is "the process and outcome whereby thinking and feeling persons, as individuals or in groups, use conscious awareness and choice to create human and environment integration" (Roy & Andrews, 1999, p.30). Roy's model asks the questions:

1. Who is the focus of nursing care?

2.What is the target of nursing care?

3. When is nursing care indicated?