BETTY NEUMAN

Systems Model
Nursing
Neuman believes that nursing requires a holistic approach that considers all factors affecting a
client's health—physical, physiological, psychological, mental, social, cultural, developmental
and spiritual well-being.

Person
Neuman regarded the concept of a person as an individual family community or the society.
She sees a person as an open system that works together with other parts of its body as it interact
with the environment.

Open system is characterized by the presence of an exchange of information and

reaction with other factors surrounding a person.

Health
Neuman considers health as dynamic in nature in which the person’s health is as the level of
health continuum—wellness or illness.

Wellness exists when all the part or system of person works harmoniously.

Environment
The environment can be an internal and external.
Stressors are the forces created by the environment. Stressors are tensions that produce
alterations in the normal flow of the environment. These stressors can be:
1. Intrapersonal - occurs within the self and comprises of man as a psycho-spiritual being
2. Interpersonal - occurs between one or more individual and consists of man as a social being
3. Extrapersonal - occurs outside the individual and may include environmental factors

1. Client Variables
- physiological, sociocultural developmental and spiritual—function to achieve stability in
relation to the environmental stressors experienced by the client.

2. Lines of Resistance
- acts when the Normal Line of Defense is invaded by too much stressor causing alteration in the
normal health pattern to facilitate coping and overcome the stressors that are present within the
individual.

3. Normal Line of Defense

- acts in coordination with the normal wellness state. It is the normal reaction of the client in
response to stress – the baseline determinants of wellness within the health continuum.

4. Flexible Line of Defense

- helps the body to adjust to situations that threaten the imbalance within the client's stability.

5. Stressors
Stressors are forces that produce tensions, alterations or potential problems causing instability
within the clients system.

6. Reaction
Reactions are the outcomes or produced results of certain stressors and actions of the lines
resistance of a client. It can be positive or negative depending on the degree of reaction the client
produces to adjust and adapt with the situation.
a. Negentropy is set towards stability or wellness
b. Egentropy is set towards disorganization of the system producing illness

7. Prevention
Prevention is used to attain balance within the continuum of health

Three Levels of Prevention according to this theory:

A. Primary prevention – focuses on foreseeing the result of an act or situation and preventing its
unnecessary effects as possible. It also aims to strengthen the capacity of a person to maintain an
optimum level of functioning while being interactive with the environment. Ex. health promotion
and disease prevention.

B. Secondary prevention – focuses on helping alleviate the actual existing effects of an action
that altered the balance of health. It aims to reduce environmental influences that cause an
alteration in the stability of the client. Ex. Early diseases detection and prompt treatment.

C. Tertiary prevention – focuses on the actual treatments or adjustments to facilitate

strengthening of person after being exposed to stressor. Aims to prevent regression and
recurrence of the disease. Ex. Rehabilitation

8. Reconstitution
A state of returning back to old health self.