MARGARET NEWMAN

Health as an expanding consciousness

Bibliography

-Margaret Newman was born on October 10, 1933 in Memphis Tennessee. -In 1954 She earned her first Bachelors degree in Home Economics and English from Baylor University in Waco, Texas -Margaret Newman felt a call to nursing for a number of years prior to her decision to enter the field. -During that time she became the primary caregiver for her mother, who became ill with Lou Gehrig's Disease. -Upon entering nursing at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, Dr. Newman knew almost immediately that nursing was right for her

Education

In 1962 she received her Bachelors degree in Nursing from the University of Tennessee, Memphis. In 1964 she received her Masters Degree of Medical-Surgical Nursing and Teaching at the University of California in San Francisco. In 1971 she completed her Doctorate of Nursing Science and Rehabilitation at New York University

Employment

1971 to 1976- She completed her graduate studies at New York University. She also worked and taught alongside nursing theorist Martha Rogers. Rehabilitation Nursing stemmed her interest in health, movement & time. 1977- Professor in charge of graduate study in nursing at Pennsylvania State. 1984- Nurse theorist at the University of Minnesota. 1 1996- Retired from teaching.

HEALTH AS AN EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

Newman's Health as Expanding Consciousness was influenced by Martha Rogers. Relationship to the Metaparadigm Concepts Newman has designated caring in the human health experience as the focus of nursing discipline and has specified the focus as the metaparadigm of the discipline. Nursing -to help clients get in touch with the meaning of their lives by the identification of their patterns of relating -Intervention is a form of non intervention whereby the nurses presence assists clients to recognize their own patterns of interacting with the environment. -facilitates pattern recognition in clients by forming relationships with them at critical points n their lives and connecting with them in an authentic way.

-The nurse-client relationship is characterized by a rhythmic coming together and moving apart as clients encounter disruption of their organized predictable state. -Nurses are seen as partners in the process of expanding consciousness.

HEALTH AS AN EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

Person

-Person as individuals are identified by their individual patterns of consciousness.

-Persons are further defined as centers of consciousness within an overall pattern of expanding consciousness -The definition of person has also been expanded to include family and community. Environment

-Environment is not explicitly defined but is described as being the larger whole, which is beyond the consciousness of the individual.

HEALTH AS AN EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

Health -A fusion of disease and non-disease creates a synthesis that is regarded as health. -Disease and non-disease are each reflections of the larger whole; therefore a new concept pattern of the whole is formed. -Newman has stated that pattern recognition is the essence of the emerging health. Manifest health, encompassing disease and non-disease can be regarded as the explication of the underlying pattern of person-environment.

HEALTH AS AN EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

Essence of Margaret Newman's Theory:

An individual person in each situation, no matter how disordered and hopeless, is part of the universal process of expanding consciousness.
The expanding consciousness is a process wherein an individual becomes more of his real self, as he finds greater meaning in his life and the lives of those people around him. In his/her search for his/her real self, the individual's awareness expands to include the interests of those people around him and the rest of the world. Self-awareness may eventually lead to acceptance of one's self and one's circumstances and limitations. With self-awareness and self-acceptance, an in-depth understanding of one's condition may pave the way for a person to engage into activities leading to positive progression transcending

HEALTH AS AN EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

Supporting Theory The health of a human being is a unitary phenomenon, an evolving pattern of humanenvironment (Rogers, 1970). Life is a process of expanding consciousness. Consciousness is the informational capacity of the system and can be seen in the quality of interaction of the system with the environment (Bentov, 1978).

HEALTH AS AN EXPANDING CONSCIOUSNESS

Assumptions

1. Health encompasses conditions heretofore described as illness, or, in medical terms, pathology
2. These pathological conditions can be considered a manifestation of the total pattern of the individual 3. The pattern of the individual that eventually manifests itself as pathology is primary and exists prior to structural or functional changes 4. Removal of the pathology in itself will not change the pattern of the indivdual 5. If becoming ill is the only way an individual's pattern can manifest itself, then that is health for that person 6. Health is an expansion of consciousness.