ASWEGI, ELOISA A.

BSN-2A

Synthesis Essay: Adaptation Theory

Adopt to Adapt

Life is a battlefield, but it ain't about the person who will hold

the rope first rather the one who will keep holding unto that rope

despite it all. Things won't always stay the same, we experience

situations that will either change us biologically, psychologically, or

Sister Calista Roy
socially. When a change comes adaptation follows, which then paved

a way of valuing our consciousness, awareness, self-reflection, and

choice to create human and environmental integration as emphasized

in the Adaptation Theory of Sister Calista Roy.

We all are a bio-psycho-social being with a constant interaction to a changing environment by

which illnesses are inevitable dimensions of a person’s life and in order to cope up with an ever-

changing world we need to use coping mechanisms divided into two subsystems, the first one is the

cognator subsystem which is the mental coping mechanism including the use of our brain to cope up

with changes via self- concept, and interdependence, the second one is the regulator subsystem which

includes the physiological coping mechanisms such as relaxation, eating, and exercising. For us to

respond positively to changes we need to adapt, with the four modes of adaptation given to us by

Sister Calista Roy we could survive, the first one is our physiologic needs which are meant to achieve

our five needs of physiological integrity which are the oxygenation, nutrition, elimination, protection,

and activity and rest. Followed by, self- concept, which is all about having a sense of unity,

purposefulness, identity, integrity, and self- ideas. Next is, the role function which focuses on the

primary, secondary, and tertiary roles that a person occupies in the society. The last one is,

interdependence which is all about attaining relational integrity through the giving and receiving of
love, respect, and value.

Our health is an inevitable dimension, as Sister Calista Roy pointed out that health is a state and

process of becoming integrated and whole. She then highlighted the three components of the environment

which are focal, which is internal or external, and immediately confronts the person. Next is, contextual,

which all stimuli present in the situation that all contribute to the effect of the focal stimulus. Lastly, the

residual, whose effects in the current situation are unclear.

The Adaptation Model is very broad it also includes the six-step nursing process beginning with the

first level of assessment, which addresses the patient’s behavior, the second one addresses the patient’s

stimuli, the third is the diagnosis, later on, is setting the goals for the patient’s health, followed by

intervention to take actions to meet those goals, ending it with the evaluation of the result to determine if

the goals were met. Throughout this nursing process, it is the responsibility of the nurse to make adaptations

to the nursing care plan basing on the progress of the patient’s health.

It is the sole purpose of a nurse to promote the four adaptive modes of Roy’s adaptation model with

that responsibility we student nurses continue to thrive in order to be worthy in playing that role someday.

It is in us to take things lightly, to not allow our patients feel alone in times of changes, to guide and support

them when they can no longer feel the security of tomorrow, when they are being too discourage and afraid

to change, we should be there, and we will always be there. More than the ideas and knowledge that Sister

Calista Roy wants us to know lies a message to all of us, that we cannot control everything but despite it

being like that we can choose whether we will let the change take over us and adapt to it in the most positive

manner or the other way around. Change was never a problem, because when it comes growth follows. We

have to adopt and begin to use something new and different in order to adapt and be suitable for a new

purpose. Let us learn to adopt intending to adapt.