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Levine's Four Conservation Principles

Levine's Four Conservation Principles

This page w as last updated on September 9, 2013 Intr oduction Theorist - Myra Estrine Levine Diploma in nursing:-Cook County SON, Chicago, 1944 BSN:-University of Chicago,1949 MSN:-Wayne State University, Detroit, 1962 Publication:- An Introduction to Clinical Nursing, 1969, 1973 & 1989 Received honorary doctorate from Loyola University in 1992 Clinical experience in OT technique and oncology nursing Civilian Nurse at the Gardiner General Hospital Director of Nursing at Drexel Home in Chicago Clinical Instructor at Bryan Memorial Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska Administrative supervisor at University of Chicago Chairperson of clinical nursing at Cook Country SON Visiting professor at Tel Aviv University in Israel Died in 1996 M ajor Conce pts of Cons e r vational m ode l Goal of the model is to promote adaptation and maintain w holeness using the principles of conservation Model guides the nurse to focus on the influences and responses at the organismic level Nurse accomplishes the goal of model through the conservation of energy, structure and personal and social integrity Adaptation Every individual has a unique range of adaptive responses The responses w ill vary by heredity, age, gender or challenges of illness experiences While the responses are same, the timing and manifestation of organismic responses w ill be unique for each individual pulse rate. An ongoing process of change in w hich patient maintains his integrity w ithin the realities of environment Achieved through the "frugal, economic, contained and controlled use of environmental resources by individual in his or her best interest" Wholeness Exist w hen the interaction or constant adaptations to the environment permits the assurance of integrity Promoted by use of conservation principle Conservation The product of adaptation "Keeping together "of the life systems or the w holeness of the individual
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Levine's Four Conservation Principles

Achieving a balance of energy supply and demand that is w ith in the unique biological realities of the individual Nu r s i n g s p a r a d i g m Person A holistic being w ho constantly strives to preserve w holeness and integrity A unique individual in unity and integrity, feeling, believing, thinking and w hole system of system Environm ent Competes the w holeness of person Internal Homeostasis Homeorrhesis External Preconceptual Operational Conceptual Internal Environm ent Hom eostasis A state of energy sparing that also provide the necessary baselines for a multitude of synchronized physiological and psychological factors A state of conservation Hom eorrhesis A stabilized flow rather than a static state Emphasis the fluidity of change w ithin a space-time continuum Describe the pattern of adaptation, w hich permit the individuals body to sustain its w ell being w ith the vast changes w hich encroach upon it from the environment External Environm ent Preconceptual Aspect of the w orld that individual are able to intercept Operational Elements that may physically affects individuals but not perceived by hem: radiation, micro-organism and pollution Conceptual Part of person's environment including cultural patterns characterized by spiritual existence, ideas, values, beliefs and tradition Person and environm ent Adaptation Organismic response Conservation Adaptation

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Levine's Four Conservation Principles

Characteristics Historicity: Adaptations are grounded in history and aw ait the challenges to w hich they respond Specificity: Individual responses and their adaptive pattern varies on the base of specific genetic structure Redundancy: Safe and fail options available to the individual to ensure continued adaptation Organism ic response A change in behavior of an individual during an attempt to adapt to the environment Help individual to protect and maintain their integrity They co-exist They are four types: 1. Flight or fight: An instantaneous response to real or imagined threat, most primitive response 2. Inflam m atory: response intended to provide for structural integrity and the promotion of healing 3. Stress: Response developed over time and influenced by each stressful experience encountered by person 4. Perceptual: Involves gathering information from the environment and converting it in to a meaning experience Ni n e m o d e l s o f g u i d e d a s s e s s m e n t Vitals signs Body movement and positioning Ministration of personal hygiene needs Pressure gradient system in nursing interventions Nursing determination in provision of nutritional needs Pressure gradient system in nursing Local application of heat and cold Administration of medicine Establishing an aseptic environment As s um ption The nurse creates an environment in w hich healing could occur A human being is more than the sum of the part Human being respond in a predictable w ay Human being are unique in their responses Human being know and appraise objects ,condition and situation Human being sense, reflects, reason and understand human being action are self determined even w hen emotional Human being are capable of prolonging reflection through such strategists raising questions Char acte r is tics of the or y The concept of illness adaptation, using interventions, and the evaluation of nursing
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Levine's Four Conservation Principles

interventions are interrelated. Concepts are sequential and logical and can be used to explain the consequences of nursing action. Levines theory is easy to use and elements are easily comprehensible. Levines idea can be tested and hypothesis can be derived from them. The principle of conservation are specific enough to be testable Levines idea have not yet been w idely researched. Levine's theory has been applied in surgical settings. Levines ideas are consistent w ith other theories, law s and principles particularly those from the humanities and sciences Co n s e r vat io n al Pr in cip le Conservation of energy Conservation of structural integrity Conservation of personal integrity Conservation of social integrity 1. Conservation of energy Refers to balancing energy input and output to avoid excessive fatigue includes adequate rest, nutrition and exercise Example: Availability of adequate rest Maintenance of adequate nutrition 2. Conservation of structural integrity Refers to maintaining or restoring the structure of body preventing physical breakdow n And promoting healing Example: Assist patient in ROM exercise Maintenance of patients personal hygiene 3. Conservation of personal integrity Recognizes the individual as one w ho strives for recognition, respect, self aw areness, selfhood and self determination Example: Recognize and protect patients space needs 4. Conservation of social integrity An individual is recognized as some one w ho resides w ith in a family, a community ,a religious group, an ethnic group, a political system and a nation Example: Position patient in bed to foster social interaction w ith other patients Avoid sensory deprivation Promote patients use of new s paper, magazines, radio. TV
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Levine's Four Conservation Principles

Provide support and assistance to family Health Health is a w holeness and successful adaptation It is not merely healing of an afflicted part ,it is return to daily activities, selfhood and the ability of the individual to pursue once more his or her ow n interest w ithout constraints Disease: It is unregulated and undisciplined change and must be stopped or death w ill ensue Nursing "Nursing is a profession as w ell as an academic discipline, alw ays practiced and studied in concert w ith all of the disciplines that together from the health sciences" The human interaction relying on communication ,rooted in the organic dependency of the individual human being in his relationships w ith other human beings Nursing involves engaging in "human interactions" Goal of Nursing To promote w holeness, realizing that every individual requires a unique and separate cluster of activities The individual integrity is his abiding concern and it is the nurses responsibility to assist him to defend and to seek its realization Nu r s i n g P r o c e s s Assessment Trophicognosis Hypothesis Interventions Evaluation Cons e r vational m ode ls Conservational model provides the basis for development of tw o theories Theory of redundancy Theory of therapeutic intention Theory of redundancy Untested, speculative theory that redefined aging and everything else that has to do w ith human life Aging is diminished availability of redundant system necessary for effective maintenance of physical and social w ell being Theory of therapeutic intention Goal: To seek a w ay of organizing nursing interventions out of the biological realities w hich the nurse has to confront Therapeutic regimens should support the follow ing goals: Facilitate healing through natural response to disease Provide support for a failing auto regulatory portion of the integrated system Restore individual integrity and w ell being

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Levine's Four Conservation Principles

Lim itation Nurse has the responsibility for determining the patient ability to participate in the care, and if the perception of nurse and patient about the patient ability to participate in care dont match, this mismatch w ill be an area of conflict. The major limitation is the focus on individual in an illness state and on the dependency of patient. Re s e a r c h Hi g h l i g h t s A theory of health promotion for preterm infants based on conservational model of nursing. Nursing science quarterly,2004 Jul,17 (3):The article describes a new middle range theory of health promotion for preterm infants based on Levines conservational model that can be used to guide neonatal nursing practice. Re f e r e n c e s 1. Timber BK. Fundamental skills and concepts in Patient Care, 7th edition, LWW. 2. George B. Julia , Nursing Theories- The base for professional Nursing Practice , 3rd ed. Norw alk, Appleton & Lange. 3. Wills M.Evelyn, McEw en Melanie (2002). Theoretical Basis for Nursing Philadelphia. Lippincott Williams& w ilkins. 4. Meleis Ibrahim Afaf (1997) , Theoretical Nursing : Development & Progress 3rd ed. Philadelphia, Lippincott. 5. Taylor Carol,Lillis Carol (2001)The Art & Science Of Nursing Care 4th ed. Philadelphia, Lippincott. 6. Potter A Patricia, Perry G Anne (1992) Fundamentals Of Nursing Concepts Process & Practice 3rd ed. London Mosby Year Book. 7. Vandemark L.M. Aw areness of self & expanding consciousness: using Nursing theories to prepare nurse therapists Ment Health Nurs. 2006 Jul; 27(6) : 605-15 8. Reed PG, The force of nursing theory guided- practice. Nurs Sci Q. 2006 Jul;19(3):225 9. Cheng MY. Using King's Goal Attainment Theory to facilitate drug compliance in a psychiatric patient. Hu Li Za Zhi. 2006 Jun;53(3):90-7. 10. Delaune SC,. Ladner PK, Fundamental of nursing, standard and practice, 2nd edition, Thomson, NY, 2002.

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