UNIT III : NURSING CONCEPTUAL MODELS

CHAPTER 12 :

The Conservation
Model

Reporter: Jennylyn
 Content
• CREDENTIALS AND BACKGROUND
OF THE THEORIST
• THEORETICAL SOURCES
• MAJOR CONCEPTS & DEFINITIONS
• Wholeness/
• Health/Integrity (Holism)
• Levine’s Conservation Model of Nursing
• Adaptation
• Environment
• Organismic Response (Integrated or Holistic
Response)
• Nursing
• Conservation
• The Four Conservation Principles
• Conservation of Energy
• Conservation of Structural Integrity
• Conservation of Personal Integrity
• Conservation of Social Integrity
CREDENTIALS AND
BACKGROUND
OF THE THEORIST
● a private duty nurse (1944)
● Levine was director of the Department of Continuing
Education at Evanston Hospital (March to June 1974) and
consultant to the department (July 1974–1976).
● In 1987 she became a Professor Emerita, Medical
Surgical Nursing, at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
● She was the first recipient of the Elizabeth Russell
Belford Award for excellence in teaching from Sigma
Theta Tau (1977).
● Levine (1989) published a substantial enhancement and
clarification of her theory in “The Four Conservation
Principles: Twenty Years Later.”

Myra Estrin
Facts:

● Author of 77 published articles

● Chose nursing because her father was ill with
gastrointestinal issues
● 3 children – 2boys, 1girl with Edwin Levine
● Excellence in teaching (1977)
● Honorary Doctorate (1992)
THEORETI
CAL
SOURCES
 THEORETICAL SOURCES
From Beland’s
(1971)
presentation of the theory of
specific causation and multiple
factors, Levine learned historical
viewpoints of diseases and learned
that the way people think about
disease changes over time.
Levine uses Gibson’s (1966)
definition of perceptual
systems
Erikson’s (1964, 1968)
differentiation between total
and whole
Selye’s (1956) stress theory,
Bates’ (1967) model of
external environment.
 MAJOR
CONCEPTS &
DEFINITIONS
 Wholeness/Health/Integrity
(Holism)

The word “health” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word hal.

The translation of hal is whole. described in the language
of “wholes” (Levine, 1971a, p. 255). Levine’s use of
“integrity” reflects this same concept of holism: “I use the
word ‘integrity’ to encompass the wholeness of the
individual and the sense of independence and selfhood that
is implied in that term.
 In Levine’s view: “Healing is the defense of wholeness”
(1996, p. 40).

“The word healing also shares the same root as whole

and health. Healing is the avenue of return to the daily activities
compromised by ill health.
Adaptation
Adaptation

Adaptation is critical for conserving wholeness in the midst

of constant environmental change.

Change is characteristic of life, and adaptation is the

method of change. The organism retains its integrity in both
the internal and external environment through its adaptive
capability.

“Health and disease are patterns of adaptive

change”
 Three characteristics of adaptation:
Historicity Specificity
unique adaptive responses to
patterned responses passed on
specific environmental
through genetics
challenges

Redundancy
availability of multiple adaptive
responses
Environment

The environment consists of an internal

environment (the physiological and
pathophysiological processes) and an external
environment; both are in constant interaction
(Levine, 1973).
Levine (1973) uses Bates’ (1967) description of the external
environment as having three components:
1. Perceptual: aspects of the world that individuals intercept and
interpret with their sense organs

2. Operational: environmental components that physically affect

individuals, although they cannot directly perceive them, such as
microorganisms

3. Conceptual: characterized by cultural patterns, spirituality, and

aspects mediated through the symbols of language, thought, and
history
Organismic Response (Integrated or
Holistic
Response)

The term “organismic” reflects the language of the biology of

living organisms, with multiple components working together
to generate a whole, integrated organismic response.
Nursing care focuses on the management of
these integrated organismic (holistic)
responses (Levine, 1969a, 1969b), which
include:
1. Response to fear (fight or
flight)

The most primitive response, these

adrenocorticalympathetic reactions are activated
whenever individuals perceive that they are
threatened, whether or not a threat actually exists.
2. Inflammatory-immune
response

The mechanism that protects the organism from

environmental irritants and pathogens, the
inflammatoryimmune response is a way of
healing; however, it drains energy reserves.
3. Response to stress

Levine (1969b) built on Selye’s (1956) model of the

adaptive stress response, characterized by predictable
behavioral and biological responses (particularly
adrenocortical hormones) to various nonspecific
stressors of life.
4. Sensory response

This response is generated through perceptual

awareness as individuals experience the world
around them through sensory stimuli.
 Nursing
Nursing has a conservative function, seeking to actively
support the patient’s adaptive efforts to achieve the best available environmental fit
(Levine, 1989), thus conserving wholeness and integrity.

“Nursing intervention must be founded not only on scientific knowledge, but specifically
on recognition of the individual’s behavioral responses which indicate the nature of the
adaptation taking place” (Levine, 1966a, p. 2452).
Conservation

“Conservation” is from the Latin word

conservatio, which means “to keep
together” (Levine, 1973). Conservation is a
natural law which “describes the way
complex systems are able to continue to
function even when severely challenged”
(Levine, 1990, p. 192).
The Four Conservation
Principles

“Nursing principles are fundamental assumptions

which provide a unifying structure for
understanding a wide variety of nursing
activities” (Levine, 1967b, p. 45).
Conservation of Energy
• “All of life’s processes are fundamentally
dependent upon the production and expenditure of
energy” (Levine, 1967b, p. 47).

• “Conservation of energy is typical of the natural

defense
against disease processes.
Conservation of Structural
Integrity

Structure and function are strongly interrelated

complementary aspects of the human organism.
Conservation of Personal
Integrity

Conservation of personal integrity is based in a

valuing of self-identity, self-worth, and self-
respect, also reflecting the understanding that “the
body does not exist separately from the mind,
emotions, and soul” (Levine, 1967b, pp. 53–54).
Conservation of Social
Integrity

Social integrity is reflected in dynamic

relationships among human beings
(Levine, 1967b).
Thank you for
listening!
 QUIZ
1. In 1987 she became a Professor Emerita, Medical Surgical Nursing, at the
University of Illinois at Chicago.
2. _________ is characteristic of life, and adaptation is the method of change.
3. The term _________ reflects the language of the biology of living
organisms, with multiple components working together to generate a whole,
integrated organismic response.
4. _________ is a natural law which “describes the way complex systems are
able to continue to function even when severely challenged” (Levine, 1990,
p. 192).
5. Give at least two out of four Conservation Principles
6. The mechanism that protects the organism from environmental irritants and
pathogens, the inflammatoryimmune response is a way of healing; however,
it drains energy reserves.
7. This response is generated through perceptual awareness as individuals
experience the world around them through sensory stimuli.
8. unique adaptive responses to specific environmental challenges
9. “I use the word ________ to encompass the wholeness of the individual and
the sense of independence and selfhood that is implied in that term.
10.The word _______ comes from the Anglo-Saxon word hal.
 Answers:
1. Myra Estrin Levine
2. Change
3. Organismic
4. Conservation
5. Conservation of Energy
Conservation of Structural Integrity
Conservation of Personal Integrity
Conservation of Social Integrity
6. Inflammatory-immune response
7. Sensory response
8. Specificity
9. Integrity
10.health