Page 463 - alligood 8th edition_Neat

444 UNIT IV Nursing Theories

omnipresence of all that there is” (p. xxvi). Young’s regarding the nature of health (Newman, 1994).
(1976) theory of human evolution pinpointed the Newman incorporated Prigogine’s (1976) theory
role of pattern recognition for Newman. She ex- of dissipative structures as an explanation for the
plained that Young’s ideas provided impetus for her timing of nursing presence as the patient fluctuates
to integrate the basic concepts of her new theory, from one level of organization to a higher level
movement, space, time, and consciousness, into a (M. Newman, personal communication, 2004). Al-
dynamic portrayal of life and health (Newman, though Newman (1997a) acknowledges the contri-
1994). Moss’s (1981) experience of love as the high- butions of these theories to her theory, she states that
est level of consciousness was important to Newman, her theory “was enriched by them, but was not based
providing affirmation and elaboration of her intuition on them” (p. 23).

MAJOR CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS
Health manifestations of the pattern of a person are the
Health is the “pattern of the whole” of a person and genetic pattern that contains information that
includes disease as a manifestation of the pattern of directs becoming, the voice pattern, and the move-
the whole, based on the premise that life is an ongo- ment pattern (Newman, 1986). Characteristics of
ing process of expanding consciousness (Newman, pattern include movement, diversity, and rhythm.
1986). It is regarded as the evolving pattern of the Pattern is conceptualized as being somehow inti-
person and environment and is viewed as an increas- mately involved in energy exchange and transfor-
ing ability to perceive alternatives and respond in a mation (Newman, 1994). According to Newman
variety of ways (Newman, 1986). Health is “a trans- (1987b), “Whatever manifests itself in a person’s life
formative process to more inclusive consciousness” is the explication of the underlying implicate pat-
(Newman, 2008, p. 16). tern . . . the phenomenon we call health is the man-
Using Hegel’s dialectical fusion of opposites, ifestation of that evolving pattern” (p. 37).
Newman explained conceptually how disease fuses In Health as Expanding Consciousness, Newman
with its opposite, nondisease or absence of disease, (1986, 1994) developed pattern as a major concept
to create a new concept of health that is relational that is used to understand the individual as a
and is “patterned, emergent, unpredictable, unitary, whole being. Newman described a paradigm shift
intuitive, and innovative,” rather than a traditional in the field of health care: the shift from treatment
linear view that is “causal, predictive, dichotomous, of disease symptoms to a search for patterns and
rational, and controlling” (Newman, 1994, p. 13). the meaning of those patterns. Newman (1994)
Health and the evolving pattern of consciousness stated that the patterns of interaction of person-
are the same. The essence of the emerging paradigm environment constitute health. Individual life pat-
of health is recognition of pattern. Newman (1994) terns according to Newman (2008) move “through
sees the life process as progression toward higher peaks and troughs, variations in order-disorder
levels of consciousness. that are meaningful for the person” (p. 6). An
event such as a disease occurrence is part of
Pattern a larger process. By interacting with the event,
Pattern is information that depicts the whole and no matter how destructive the force might be, its
energy augments the person’s energy and enhances
understanding of the meaning of all of the relation- his or her power. One must grasp the pattern of
ships at once (M. Newman, personal communica- the whole to see this (Newman, 1986).
tion, 2004). It is conceptualized as a fundamental
attribute of all there is, and it gives unity in diversity Consciousness
(Newman, 1986). Pattern is what identifies an indi- Consciousness is both the informational capacity of
vidual as a particular person. Examples of explicit the system and the ability of the system to interact