Margaret Newman's Theory of Health As Expanding Consciousness Assignment - 1

Margaret Newman's Theory of Health As Expanding Consciousness - Assignment Example In this theory, Newman redefines nursing as the means of understanding the person in connection to the environment and also as the manner of understanding of consciousness. It is the nurse who should help people to understand and use the potential within to acquire the greater level of consciousness. Newman also describes the relationship between time, space and movement. According to her, space and time are the secular patterns of a person. Both of them have reciprocal relationships. Human beings are continually evolving through space and time, and it displays a unique model of reality (Brown 2011). Newman states that human beings are open to the entire systems of energy in the universe and also regularly interacting with the energy. It is through such environmental interactions that human beings can develop their unique individual patterns. Newman emphasizes the importance of understanding individual patterns. The recognition of such individual patterns amounts to expanding consciousness. The symptoms of diseases depend on individual patterns. Therefore, the diagnostics of the illnesses exists before the signs appear. Thus, the removal of such signs does not alter the individual formation (Newman). In my opinion, Newman’s theory is about a new approach of seeing health and diseases as manifestations of the evolving patterns of the interaction of individuals with the environment. Therefore, diseases should not be seen as separate entities of people’s health. Diseases should be seen as part of the self-organizing process of expanding consciousness instead of viewing them as negative aspects of health. The treatment of diseases should, therefore, shift from the usual treatment of symptoms to a new approach of searching for patterns. The usual role of nursing is addressing the problems of diseases, but the new role should be helping people get in touch with their individual patterns of