KING’S GENERAL SYSTEMS FRAMEWORK

IMOGENE KING

Bibliography
 Born on January 30, 1923 in Iowa.
 Earned a diploma in nursing from St. John’s Hospital of nursing in St. Louis in
1945
 Worked as office nurse, staff nurse, school nurse, and private duty nurse to
support herself while studying for a baccalaureate degree.
 Finished Bachelor of Science in Nursing from St. Louis University in 1948.
 Completed her Master of Science in Nursing from St. Louis University in 1957.
 She got her Doctorate from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, New York in
1961.
 1966-1968: She spent these years in the academic settings of Ohio State,
University, Loyola University, and the University of South Florida.
 Died on December 24, 2007 in Saint Petersburg, Florida two days after suffering
from a stroke.

Assumptions
Imogene King’s personal philosophy about human beings and life influenced her
assumptions about the environment, health, nursing, individuals, and nurse-patient
interactions. King’s conceptual system and Theory of Goal Attainment were “based on
an overall assumption that the focus of nursing is human beings interacting with their
environment, leading to a state of health for individuals, which is an ability to function
in social roles.”

The assumptions are:

1) The focus of nursing is the care of the human being (patient).
2) The goal of nursing is the health care of both individuals and groups.
3) Human beings are open systems interacting with their environments
constantly.
4) The nurse and patient communicate information, set goals mutually, and then
act to achieve those goals. This is also the basic assumption of the nursing
process.
5) Patients perceive the world as a complete person making transactions with
individuals and things in the environment.
6) The transaction represents a life situation in which the perceiver and the thing
being perceived are encountered. It also represents a life situation in which a
 person enters the situation as an active participant. Each is changed in the
process of these experiences.

Metaparadigm
 Person:  Individuals are social beings who are rational and sentient. Humans
communicate their thoughts, actions, customs, and beliefs through language.
Persons exhibit common characteristics such as the ability to perceive, think, feel,
choose between alternative courses of action, set goals, select the means to achieve
goals, and make decisions.

 Environment:  Environment consists of both internal and external elements. The

internal environment is found within the individual, whereas the external occurs
outside of the individual’s control. This is transformative as one is able to
continuously adjust to changes based on his/her environment.

 Health:  Health is defined as the process of growth and development, and the way
in which individuals cope with their stressors and function in their environment. It
is dynamic and constantly changing, requiring continuous adjustments to
maintain physiological and psychological soundness. It can be optimized through
obtaining appropriate resources in dealing with such stressors as identified in the
patient-nurse interpersonal transactions.

 Nursing:  Nursing is a process of action, reaction, and interaction whereby nurse

and client share information about their perceptions in the nursing situation. The
nurse and client share specific goals, problems, and concerns and explore how to
achieve a goal.

Theory Proper

Theory of Goal Attainment

The Theory of Goal Attainment states that “Nursing is a process of action, reaction,
and interaction by which nurse and client share information about their perception in
a nursing situation” and “a process of human interactions between nurse and client
whereby each perceives the other and the situation, and through communication, they
set goals, explore means, and agree on means to achieve goals.”

King’s Conceptual Framework and Theory of Goal Attainment

Conceptual frameworks have practical value as they guide research and practice. In
nursing, they enable unique perspectives of the metaparadigm concept and provide a
path for concrete theories. A conceptual framework that can be used in advanced
practice nursing is King’s Conceptual System. Imogene King’s Conceptual System
scrutinizes the interrelationship between human beings and their environment, which
then defines the physical and social conditions for them to function. King’s model
reflects the general systems theory of nursing by encompassing the metaparadigm
concepts of human beings, environment, health, and nursing.
Three interacting systems of personal, interpersonal, and social systems comprise the
human beings’ concept of the metaparadigm.

The personal system is defined as ‘a unified, complex whole self who perceives,
thinks, desires, imagines, decides, identifies goals, and selects means to achieve them.
King designated an example of a personal system as a patient or a nurse.

Personal Systems 7 Dimensions:

1. Perception: self-awareness, your own representation of reality and
involves; input of the environment, the transformation of energy, processing
information, storing of information, and export of information as behavior
2. Self: composed of thoughts, desires, imaginations, and awareness. The self is
the individual as known to the individual. It is that to which we refer when we
say “I.”
3. Growth & Development: genetic experiences, molecular and behavior changes
4. Body Image: how one perceives both one’s body and others’ reactions to one’s
appearance.
5. Time: defined as “a duration between one event and another as uniquely
experienced by each human being; it is the relation of one event to another
event.”
6. Personal Space: defined by the physical area known as “territory” and by the
behaviors of those occupying it.
7. Learning: critical thinking, self-activities, conceptualizing based on in/outputs.
It is a sub concept in the personal system but did not further define it.
The interpersonal system occurs between the individual and groups of people and
may include the nurse. Paramount to the patient-nurse transaction is communication.

Interpersonal Systems 6 Dimensions:

1. Interaction: are defined as the observable behaviors of two or more individuals
in mutual presence.
2. Communication: A process whereby information is given from one person to
another either directly in a face-to-face meeting or indirectly through telephone,
television, or the written word.
3. Transaction: a process of interactions in which human beings communicate
with the environment to achieve goals that are valued… goal-directed human
behaviors
4. Role: expected position and obligations, a relationship in a specific situation
5. Stress: dynamic state of a person’s interaction with the environment, either
positive or negative
6. Coping: related to coping with stress/stressors

The social system is the broader interactions that occur within and between groups,
in which boundaries, social roles, behaviors, and practices are set. These groups share
commonalities in terms of interests, goals, and values, and include concepts of
organization, power, status, authority, and decision-making.

Social systems 6 dimensions:

1. Organization: prescribed roles/positions, using resources to accomplish goals
2. Authority: reciprocal interactions to define/validate/accept the authority of
individuals
3. Power: to resolve or influence situations
4. Status: the position of an individual in a group or a group concerning other
groups in an organization
5. Decision making: a dynamic and systematic process by which goal-directed
choice of perceived alternatives is made and acted upon by individuals or
groups to answer a question and attain a goal
6. Control: as a sub concept in the social system but did not further define the
concept

Dynamic Conceptual Systems

King has interrelated the concepts of

interaction, perception, communication,
transaction, self, role, stress, growth and
development, time, and space into a goal
attainment theory. Her theory deals with a
nurse-client dyad, a relationship to which
each person brings personal perceptions of
self, role, and personal growth and
development levels. The nurse and client
communicate, first in interaction and then
in the transaction, to attain mutually set
goals. The relationship takes place in space identified by their behaviors and occurs in
forward-moving time.

Process of Interaction

According to King, “The human process of interactions formed the basis for designing
a model of transactions that depicted theoretical knowledge used by nurses to help
individuals and groups attain goals.”

Interaction
Interaction is a process of perception and communication between a person and
environment and between person and person represented by verbal and nonverbal
behaviors that are goal-directed.
Transaction
The transaction is a process of interactions in which human beings communicate with
the environment to achieve valued goals; transactions are goal-directed human
behaviors. Perception is “each person’s representation of reality.”
Communication
Communication is defined as “a process whereby information is given from one person
to another either directly in face-to-face meetings or indirectly through telephone,
television, or the written word.”
Role
The role is defined as “a set of behaviors expected of persons occupying a position in a
social system; rules that define rights and obligations in a position; a relationship with
one or more individuals interacting in specific situations for a purpose.”
Stress
Stress is “a dynamic state whereby a human being interacts with the environment to
maintain balance for growth, development, and performance… an energy response of
an individual to persons, objects, and events called stressors.”
Growth and Development
Growth and development can be defined as the “continuous changes in individuals at
the cellular, molecular, and behavioral levels of activities… the processes that take
place in the life of individuals that help them move from potential capacity for
achievement to self-actualization.”
Time
Time is “a sequence of events moving onward to the future… a continuous flow of
events in successive order that implies a change, a past and a future… a duration
between one event and another as uniquely experienced by each human being… the
relation of one event to another.”
Space
Space exists in every direction and is the same in all directions. Space includes that
physical area called territory. Space is defined by the behaviors of those individuals
who occupy it.

Theory of Goal Attainment and The Nursing Process

Imogene King emphasizes the nursing process in her model. The steps of the nursing
process are assessment, nursing, diagnosis, planning, implementations,
and evaluation.

ASSESSMENT
The theory explains that assessment takes place during the interaction. During this
phase, the nurse gathers data about the patient, including their growth and
development, the perception of self, and current health status. Perception is the basis
for the collection and interpretation of data. Communication is required to verify the
accuracy of the perception, as well as for interaction and translation.

DIAGNOSIS
The next phase is the diagnosis. This phase is developed using the data collected in
the assessment. In attaining goals, the nurse identifies problems, concerns, and
disturbances about which the patient is seeking help.

PLANNING
The planning phase arises after the diagnosis. The nurse and other health care team
members create a care plan of interventions to solve the problems identified. This
phase is represented by setting goals and making decisions about the means to
achieve those goals. This part of the transaction and the patient’s participation are
encouraged in making decisions on the means to achieve the goals.

IMPLEMENTATION
The actual activities done to achieve the goals make up the implementation phase of
the nursing process. Whereas in this model of nursing, it is the continuation of
transaction.

EVALUATION
Finally, in the evaluation phase, the nurse evaluates the patient to determine whether
the goals were achieved. Evaluation involves determining whether or not goals were
achieved. The explanation of evaluation in King’s theory addresses meeting goals and
the effectiveness of nursing care.
In the healthcare field, the nurse-patient relationship‘s final goal is to help the patient
achieve his or her goals for getting healthy. Using the nursing process described in
King’s Theory of Goal Attainment, a nurse can be more effective in working with a
patient to achieve those goals and truly help patients.

Strengths And Weaknesses

STRENGTHS
 King’s conceptual theory and system is that it can be easily understood by nurses.
 King’s definitions are clear and are conceptually derived from the research
literature for knowledge building.

WEAKNESS
 It has limited application in Nursing areas
 The interaction between the nurse and client comprises nonverbal communication
that cannot be defined and evaluated.
 Relates to the lack of development of applying the theory in providing nursing care
to groups, families, or communities.

Conclusion
 In conclusion, King’s Conceptual System provides a unique perspective of the
nursing discipline as abstracted from the metaparadigm concepts.
 King’s model focuses on the individual and emphasizes the patient-nurse
relationship in identifying and overcoming barriers to health, with an underlying
holistic theme.
 Based on her conceptual system, King was able to derive the Theory of Goal
Attainment to further advance nursing research and practice.
 According to King, there are three interacting systems in the Theory of Goal
Attainment. These are the personal system, the interpersonal system, and the
social system.
 King's conceptual system is based on the assumption that human beings are
the focus of nursing. The goal of nursing is health promotion, maintenance,
and/or restoration; care of the sick or injured; and care of the dying.

Resources:

Evans, J., & Danda, L. (2021, March 05). Imogene King: Theory of Goal Attainment (Study
Guide). Retrieved October 2, 2021, from https://nurseslabs.com/imogene-m-kings-
theory-goal- attainment/?fbclid=IwAR1ahoDppLxyZ70TcHqPEu8YTbaFLK9Q6i3ONG9
mhZZKjH827lvJmufHttU

Importance of Imogene Kings Theory of Goal Attainment. (n.d.). Retrieved October 2,

2021, from https://nursinganswers.net/essays/importance- imogene-kings-
theory-goal-5487.php

Imogene Kings General Systems Framework. (2020, February 08). Retrieved October 2,
2021, from https://pmhealthnp.com/nursing-student- support/imogene-kings-
general-systems-framework/
Necor, Josephine Ann. (n.d.). Imogene King's Goal Attainment Theory. Retrieved October 2,
2021, from https://www.slideshare.net/JosephineAnnNecor/04-imogene-kings-
goal-attainment-theory