Margaret Newman: Health as Expanding Consciousness Aleida Drozdowicz Elizabeth Kinchen Foundations in Holistic Nursing I NGR 6168 Dr. Bernadette Lange

What was the driving force? Father involved in philosophy  Learned there were different ways to look at any one situation. Mother’s illness with ALS  Became interested in Nursing as a profession  2 key realizations Disease/illness does not define a person Time, movement and space interrelated with health and quality of relationships. Professor Marie Buckley  Encouraged independent Nursing Practice Professor Dorothy Hocker  Power of Nursing Presence Martha Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings  Enhanced ability to see whole

Stage of Knowledge Development Doctoral at NYU with Martha Rogers  Study movement, time and space as parameters of health; positivist scientific paradigm.  Theoretical insights evolved as she continued to learn Martha Rogers ‘ work. Health and illness are manifestations of a greater whole Person, family and environment are interconnected as a unitary whole Toward a Theory of Health - presentation at Nursing Theory Conference In New York City Nurse Theorist at University of Minnesota.  Pattern Recognition Nursing Process - Collaboration with Richard Cowling, Case Western, and Jim Vail, Army Nurse Corps.  Published 2 editions of “Health as Expanding Consciousness” Published “Transforming Presence: The Difference that Nursing Makes”; “Giving Voice to What we Know: Margaret Newman’s Theory of Health as Expanding Consciousness in Nursing Practice, Research and Education”.

Health Movement 1970 Women’s Health Movement  Beginning of a power shift in women’s health  Women wanted control of their own bodies 1980 Community Mental Health Movement  Started in 1900’s  Aimed at improving government mental health services  Insanity Defense  People with mental problems could stay in their normal communities with little hospitalizations

Economic/Political Influences on Health Government concerned with rising costs of healthcare because of Medicare and Medicaid Proposal for a health cost strategy to slow inflation rates were first made in  Expand health maintenance organization (HMO’s)  Regulate hospital physician fees with federal controls if a state failed to act;  Higher cost sharing in private insurance 1974 American Congressional Registration, National Health Planning and resources development Act  No equal access to affordable healthcare  Use of Federal Funds in the healthcare system added to increase in inflation rates  No uniform methods of healthcare  Unequal distribution of healthcare facilities  Lack of basic knowledge regarding personal healthcare  Years later found health planning was ineffective at constraining how much money was spent leading to rise in health costs.

Metaparadigm of Nursing Newman moves from the ‘Instrumentalist’ paradigm to a Relational one Based on partnership between nurse and nursed Goal is to facilitate a higher level of consciousness through recognition of life patterning Newman advocates a break with medical science and its mechanist paradigm

Philosophical Underpinnings Evolving Consciousness as a Unitary concept Health encompasses and goes beyond disease Life is the Process of Expanding Consciousness Consciousness is the informational capacity of the system Anything Explicate is a manifestation of the Implicate Order

Theoretical Underpinnings Martha Rogers’ Science of Unitary Human Beings Itzhak Bentov’s Life as the Expansion of Consciousness Bohm’s Theory of Implicate Order Prigogine’s Theory of Dissipative Structures Young’s Theory of the Evolution of Consciousness

Basic Assumptions Health encompasses conditions known as disease Disease can be considered a manifestation of the underlying pattern of the person The pattern of the person that manifests itself as disease is primary and exists prior to structural or functional changes Health is the expansion of consciousness

Expanding the Body of Nursing Knowledge

Snapshot of Literature Review Findings

References Newman, M. A Transforming presence: the difference that nursing makes. Philadelphia: F. A. Davis Company Newman, M. A Evolution of the theory of health as expanding consciousness. Nursing Science Quarterly 10(1): Smith, M. E. (2010). Nursing theories and nursing practice, 3 rd ed. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.

References Strange, F Book Review. Health as Expanding Consciousness 2 nd ed. By Margaret A. Newman. New York: National League for Nursing Press. Young, C. K. (n.d.). ns.aspx. Retrieved June 23, 2011, from ns.aspx?lesson=1&chpt=4&classroom=W zwx8cQvx4OuZnoUSU66w%2FJc6LIMTq7 4GsDI%2FyHd5aY%3D ns.aspx?lesson=1&chpt=4&classroom=W zwx8cQvx4OuZnoUSU66w%2FJc6LIMTq7 4GsDI%2FyHd5aY%3D