Personal Nursing Values Compared with Roy's Adaptation Model

Personal Nursing Beliefs and Values Compared with the Roy Adaption Model
Professional nurses are on the front lines of health care delivery, and they are being confronted with an increasingly diverse patient base as well as understanding and applying important innovations in medical technologies. Fortunately, nursing theories such as Sister Callista Roy’s Adaptation Model of Nursing provide a general framework concerning the participants and appropriate goals for nursing practice today. This paper identifies the author’s beliefs and values related to nursing, including the participants, environment, health and goals of professional nursing practice and compares these with the philosophical claims undergirding the Roy Adaptation Model of Nursing. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the author’s beliefs and values related to nursing and the Roy Adaptation Model are presented in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
In many ways, my beliefs and values with respect to nursing closely mirror those described by Shahrian, Mohammadi, Abbaszadeh and Bahrami (2015) who report that compassionate and caring nurses tend to always first inquire, “What can I do?” and then formulate a treatment strategy that best satisfies the answer to this question based on my beliefs and values. These beliefs include the overarching responsibility of nurses to provide the absolute best health care services in every situation based on the underlying value that patients and their families deserve this quality of care.
In addition, these beliefs and values are likewise highly congruent with those described by Shahrian et al. (2015) who advise that, “Nurses are responsible for their clinical function, and their main responsibility is to take care of the clients and patients who deserve appropriate and safe care. They act based on the values they have selected” (p. 2). It is important to note, however, that beliefs and values related to nursing are not carved in stone and can and should change in response to changes in practitioners’ professional role and higher educational attainments. In this regard, Shahrian and her associates add that, “Clinical values are essential with regard to constant changes in nurses’ social class and role. Nurses’ awareness of their values and the effect of these values on their behavior is a core part of humanistic nursing care” (p. 3).
Beyond the foregoing, another closely held value is the precious nature of life but the fundamental right of all patients to make decisions concerning what type and level of nursing services they desire. This value subsumes several others, including the basic integrity of all patients regardless of their life circumstances and choices, as well as the importance to identify patient preferences together with their family members when appropriate. These values and beliefs and also closely aligned with the main tenets of the Roy Adaptation Model. According to Kim and Kollack (2006), the adaptation component of Roy’s model refers to a “function of impinging stimuli and adaptation level” wherein professional nurses can be considered the relevant adaptive systems that contribute to the coping process (p. 35). In sum, Roy maintained that people can more effectively adapt to their environment in ways that promote optimal clinical outcomes (Kim & Kollack, 2006).
Based on the foregoing, the main purpose of nursing practice drawing on the Roy Adaptation Model is to facilitate and promote the ability of human adaptive systems to more effectively adjust to changes in their environments and to create corresponding changes in their environment (Fawcett, 2009).. As shown in Figure 1 below, Roy conceptualized human adaptation as behaviors that respond to changes in the environment using various coping processes that result in an appropriate adaptation.

Figure 1: Roy's Adaptation Model systems
Source: Roy & Andrews (1999)
These attributes mean that the Roy Adaptation Model can be applied to virtually any type of nursing setting. From a Roy’s Adaptation Model perspective, then, the participants in nursing practice extend to include patients, family members, stakeholder groups and the community at large (Fawcett, 2009).
Conclusion
The research showed that professional nurses today have a number of nursing theories available to help guide their practice, with the Roy Adaptation Model being one of the more prominent such theories. Although my personal beliefs and values related to nursing do not correspond to Roy’s model point for point, there are a number of areas where they overlap and even coincide, especially with respect to the participants, environment, health and goals of professional nursing practice today.

References
Fawcett, J. (2009, September/December). Using the Roy Adaptation Model to guide research and/or practice: Construction of conceptual-theoretical-empirical systems of knowledge. Aquichán, 9(3), 16-21.
Kim, H. S. & Kollack, I. (2006). Nursing theories: Conceptual and philosophical foundations. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Roy, C. & Andrews, H. A. (1999). The Roy adaptation model (2nd ed). Stamford, CT: Appleton & Lange.
Shahrian, M., Mohammadi, E., Abbaszadeh, A. & Bahrami, M. (2015, January-February). Nursing ethical values and definitions: A literature review. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research, 18(1), 1-8.