Introduction
Sr. Callista Roy is now known to all individuals occupied in the sphere of nursing because she managed to contribute to it significantly. She is known as an outstanding theorist, researcher, and educator. However, in the middle of the 20th century, she was just a promising nursing student. Receiving her education in the university, Roy managed to develop a basis for a future nursing theory that is often used today. Her authoritativeness cannot be denied, as she had successfully obtained a Master’s degree in nursing and a Ph.D. in sociology. Moreover, she had developed course content aligned with her ideas and implemented her adaptation model to prove its effectiveness (Bhanji, 2012).
Analysis of Basic Components/Concepts and Major Relationships in the Theory
As can be understood from its name, the major basic concept of Roy’s model is an adaptation. Moreover, the theorist emphasizes that it can be observed through a response to environmental alterations, which should be considered the very purpose of nursing. Roy believes that the integration of people and the environment is critical for healthcare. In this framework, adaptation should be defined as this process and its outcome.
Nurses should pay attention to the patients’ conscious awareness of their condition and adaptive changes that it requires. Clients’ self-reflection and individual decision-making should also be in focus. The concept of a patient is critical for Roy’s theory. It is defined as an adaptive system that alters under the influence of the environment. Thus, it is both a person and his/her health. What is more, this concept can include social environments, such as relatives, neighbors, and the whole society.
Roy believes the environment to be the power that makes people implement adaptive changes. It includes various conditions and influences that affect an individual and his/her normal way of living. The environment also alters people’s development and behavior, which means that alteration is a trigger that urges individuals to respond to it in an adaptive manner. The concept of health is perceived as a process. It deals with various practices needed to reach the potential and the most successful adaptation. The concept of nursing, in Roy’s perception, serves as a connector. It links people with their environment. The aim of this process is the promotion of adaptation (Zhang, 2013).
The adaptation model is extremely beneficial for patients and nursing professionals, as it has a positive influence on their relationships. Those individuals who resort to healthcare facilities experience health problems that cannot be solved without external help. Being diagnosed by a physician with an illness, they usually face the following outcomes. Patients may be treated, but their condition cannot be enhanced due to the peculiarities of their diseases.
In this situation, they have to change their lifestyles and get used to these changes. In other cases, there is an opportunity to improve their health. However, temporary alterations are still required, which means that the necessity to adapt to new practices is observed. Rather often people resist it because they are not aware of possible complications or are not ready to quit habits. Then, nurses are expected to involve and assist clients with adaptation (Saldanha et al., 2013).
Relevance
Being a student, Roy paid much attention to other nursing theories. She was especially interested in the general system theory and the adaptation theory developed by her predecessors. On their basis, she developed her first scientific assumptions and built her own nursing model with the course of time. After the implementation of the undergraduate curriculum associated with her adaptation theory, Roy published her ideas and received recognition (Rice, 2012).
In the framework of the discussed model, nurses are perceived as a trigger that forces and guides adaptation. They assist patients if they need to get used to new tools and conditions, but they are not expected to maintain any interventions themselves. Nurses ensure that clients act as the main executors of all responses to alterations. They are involved in this process as assistants and seem to have a secondary role even though it is extremely significant. Nurses promote adaptation and keep an eye on it to be sure that a patient does not stop maintaining positive changes.
They cooperate with patients tightly and assist them directly, providing consultations and recommendations. However, a client is always free to reject a change if he/she believes it to be inappropriate. Nurses have an opportunity to try to improve people’s understanding of their condition. They can provide a rationale for the recommended interventions, for instance. Nevertheless, they cannot insist and make individuals do the things they are not willing to perform.
The adaptation model can be used as a guide for nursing professionals. It allows them to assess the level of adaptation, identify issues, examine influences made on them, and develop a plan to promote adaptation. For instance, it can be utilized as a basis for patient education, in the framework of which, attention is mainly paid to the coping processes. In this case, nurses need to focus on regulator and cognator subsystems and the way they work. All in all, it enhances patients’ perception of disease, which as beneficial influences on health outcomes. It also promotes self-care behaviors and skills that allow them to adapt to a new condition and live life to the fullest.
Significant improvement is also observed in the framework of physiological adaptation. Receiving disease-related information, patients become more willing to accept changes. They learn to be independent and to take care of themselves. The successful usage of Roy’s theory provides an opportunity to minimalize suicidal cases and avoid social isolation. It is extremely beneficial for patients who have cancer. These people need to change their routine and live with health complications. Their physical and psychological condition worsens because they know that they can die soon. Still, support and information provided by nurses under Roy’s model can help them to cope with needed alterations and pain, avoiding frustration.
Summary
Roy’s adaptation model is very useful for nurse practitioners because it provides them with an opportunity to improve people’s ability to link with their environment. It encourages nurses to operate in the role of a driving force that triggers positive adaptive alterations instead of treating illnesses through the care provided to clients.
In this way, this model promotes adaptation to changes and helps individuals to live their lives to the fullest. Focusing on this purpose, nurse professionals are expected to get involved in such practices as a provision of health education and counseling. They improve patients’ understanding of their health condition and recommend how to reach their potential. This nursing theory deals with the most positive response to stimuli. In this way, it cannot be maintained without an appropriate assessment and identification of goals. Even though Roy’s adaptation model is not difficult to understand and use, its implementation can be rather time-consuming.
References
Bhanji, S. M. (2012). Comparison and contrast of Orem’s self-care theory and Roy’s adaptation model. Journal of Nursing, 1(1), 48-53.
Rice, V. (2012). Handbook of stress, coping, and health: Implications for nursing research, theory, and practice. London, UK: SAGE.
Saldanha, A., Frazão, Q., Fernandes, C., Medeiros, A., Lopes, O., & Lira, C. (2013). Nursing diagnosis and Roy’s theoretical model in prostatectomized patients. Rev Rene – Northeast Network Nursing Journal, 14(4), 774-782.
Zhang, W. (2013). Older adults making end of life decisions: An application of Roy’s adaptation model. Journal of Aging Research, 2013, 1-8.