ROY ADAPTATION MODEL

Roy Adaptation Model

Roy Adaptation Model

The Roy adaptation model presents the person as a holistic adaptive system in constant interaction with the internal and the external environment. The main task of the human system is to maintain integrity in the face of environmental stimuli. The goal of nursing is to foster successful adaptation (Fawcett, 2005).

Adaptation refers to “the process and outcome whereby thinking and feeling persons as individuals or in groups, use conscious awareness and choice to create human and environmental integration”. Adaptation leads to optimal health and well-being, to quality of life, and to death with dignity. The adaptation level represents the condition of the life processes.

Three levels are described by Roy: integrated, compensatory, and compromised life processes. An integrated life process may change to a compensatory process, which attempts to reestablish adaptation. If the compensatory processes are not adequate, compromised processes give result (Andrews, 2002).

History

Roy (Roy & Andrews, 1999) developed the RAM in the late 1960s, redefining the major concepts in 1997. The conceptual model, which describes the person as an adaptive system functioning toward a purpose, was built on the work of existing theories such as the adaptation level theory (Helson, 1964; Roy & Andrews, 1999). RAM postulates that as adaptive systems, humans respond to stimuli, initiating a coping process, and this in turn has an effect on behavior, leading to responses that are either adaptive or ineffective.

Stimuli, the input to the adaptive system, are viewed as the various stressors forcing the need for change. Roy (Roy & Andrews, 1999) has divided the stimuli into three categories: focal, contextual, and residual. Responses to stimuli can fall among one of four adaptive modes: psychological, self-concept, role function, and interdependence. If a response is ineffective, the goal of adaptation is threatened, leading to a negative response. With this in mind, Roy (Roy & Andrews, 1999) views the role of the nurse as promoting patient adaptation.

Discussion

Roy described a "person" as a bio psychosocial being who must continually adapt to internal and external stimuli through various coping mechanisms. These coping mechanisms can be categorized into four modes: physiological, self-concept, role function, and interdependence. Responses from these adaptive processes can be either effective or ineffective (Phillips, 2010).

The physiological mode focuses on how the person responds physically to environmental stimuli. In Roy's theoretical framework, stimuli are categorized as focal, contextual, or residual. In this study, the focal stimulus is the woman with children returning to nursing school. Contextual stimuli include characteristics of the mother, such as employment status, number of children, and age of youngest child. Three domains must be assessed when evaluating physiological adaptation in a mother functioning in multiple roles: health perception, sleep quality, and physical activity. When a mother returns to school, she not only decreases her overall sleep time, but also disrupts her sleeping pattern (Andrews, 2002).

The self-concept mode focuses on the psychological and spiritual aspects of the person. A key element in self-concept is a personal interpretation of role perceptions within one's cultural ...