Roy Adaptation Terms

The Roy Adaptation Model is a theory and practice of nursing, developed by Sister Callista Roy in 1976. Its foundations include the concept that promoting patient adaptation is and should be a goal and framework in nursing practices. The model, which is rooted in clinical research, states that patients are persons as strongly attached to their physical and social environments.

Callista L. Roy's Biography

• Sister Roy is a professor and nurse theorist at the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, teaching doctoral, master's and undergraduate students. She is best known for developing the Roy adaptation model of nursing. She is currently involved with clinical research to develop a program for involving non-medical professionals in the cognitive recovery of patients with mild head injuries. She has been awarded numerous awards, from the American Academy of Nursing and the Massachusetts Registered Nurses Association. Sister Roy has published several journal articles and books on nursing theory and other professional topics, and is a highly-sought after speaker and presenter. A native southern Californian, she has masters' degrees in pediatric nursing and sociology and a PhD from UCLA.

Environment

• Environments are all conditions, circumstances and influences that surround and affect the development and behavior of persons and groups. Environments have three types of stimuli (focal, contextual and residual) that span a patient's family, culture and stages of development.

Types of Environmental Stimuli

• Focal stimuli are stimuli that immediately confront an individual in a specific situation. Contextual stimuli are other stimuli that influence a situation. Residual stimuli are the individual's beliefs or attitudes that may influence a situation.

Health

• Health is defined as a state and process of being and becoming integrated and whole that mirrors environmental and personal mutuality.

Adaptation

• Adaptation is seen as a process of responding positively to environmental changes and using conscious awareness to make changes. Adaptive Responses include responses that promotes integrity in terms of the person's survival, growth, reproduction, mastery and change, whereas ineffective responses are responses that do not contribute to achieving the patient's goals.

Nursing

• Roy's ideas posit nursing as a science and practice that encourages patients' adaptive abilities and enhances transformation in their environment. Its goals should promote patients' adaptation and goals, thus contributing to their well-being and quality of life. The nursing process is a problem-solving approach for gathering data, identifying patients' capacities and needs and evaluation of the outcome of care.