Calista Roy’s Adaptation Theory in Nursing

Calista Roy’s Adaptation Theory in Nursing

Introduction

Sister Calista Roy is a nursing theorist, writer, and professor known for her exemplary contribution to nursing. Born in 1939, Roy went to school where she studied until she received a degree in nursing from St. Mary’s College, LA, in 1963 (Callis, 2020). She is known for her revolutionary role in developing what is known as the Adaptation Model of Nursing. The model was created after she was challenged in a nursing seminar to form a conceptual model that nurses would use. In Roy’s theory, the model embraces a person as a set of interrelated components that are used to maintain a balance between many stimuli. The interrelationship is in the form of biological, psychological, and social perspectives (Maryati et al., 2018). Roy’s theory states that a person is a set of interrelated systems in terms of biological, social and sociological and through the framework, nurses can find guidelines in their scope of clinical practice (Callis, 2020). Calista Roy significantly contributed in field of nursing by developing nursing process and enlightening nurses about metrics which boost their clinical duties through the adaptation model in nursing and save patients life.

Roy’s Contribution to Professional Nursing, Practice, and Knowledge

Calista Roy contributed to the field of nursing through her clinical adaptation model. As seen in Figure 1 below, the theory contains four domains related to a person, environment, health, and nursing. In Roy’s theory, six steps in the nursing process can be identified. In the framework, a person represents an individual or group where a biopsychological being interacts with a dynamic environment (Smith & Gullett, 2020). Roy explains to nurses that the person factor in the model is open and adaptive in that they can use coping skills to deal with constraints (Maryati et al., 2018). In terms of environment, Roy sees it as any condition, circumstance, and influence that surround and affects how a person behaves. The stressors described by Roy are stimuli, and they are described as residential stimuli meaning that they influence a person. While adopting Roy’s concepts, nurses understand that illness and health are continuous with various possible states and degrees (Maryati et al., 2018). Therefore, nurses have been influenced to believe that health is a process in which a person is integrated to become complete or whole.