At age 14 she began working at a large general hospital, first as a pantry girl, then as a maid, and finally as a nurse's aid. After a soul-searching process of discernment, she decided to enter the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet, of which she has been a member for more than 40 years. Her college education began in a liberal arts program, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts with a major in nursing at Mount St. Mary's College, in Los Angeles.
During her graduate studies, Roy was compelled by instructor Dorothy Johnson to write a conceptual model of nursing. The Roy Adaptation Model was first published in Nursing Outlook in 1970. In this model, humans (as individuals or in groups) are holistic, adaptive systems. The environment consists of internal and external stimuli that surround an individual or group. Health is seen as a sound, unimpaired condition leading to wholeness. Nursing's goal is to promote modes of adaptation that support overall health.
Four modes of adaptation support integrity: physiologic-physical, self-concept group identity, role function and interdependence. In applying Roy's model, the following steps may help to integrate it with the traditional nursing process: assessment of client behavior; assessment of stimuli; nursing diagnosis; goal setting; interventions; and evaluation.
In 1976, Sister Callista Roy developed the Adaptation Model of Nursing, a prominent nursing theory. Nursing theories frame, explain or define the provision of nursing care. Roy's model sees the an individual as a set of interrelated systems (biological, psychological and social). The individual strives to maintain a balance between these systems and the outside world, but there is no absolute level of balance. Individuals strive to live within a unique band in which he or she can cope adequately.
Major Assumptions, Concepts and Relationships Assumptions
In the Adaptation Model, assumptions are specified as scientific assumptions or philosophical assumptions.
Scientific Assumptions
Systems of matter and energy progress to higher levels of complex self- organization.
Consciousness and meaning are constitutive of person and environment integration
Awareness of self and environment is rooted in thinking and feeling
Humans by their decisions are accountable for the integration of creative processes.
Thinking and feeling mediate human action
System relationships include acceptance, protection, and fostering of interdependence
Persons and the earth have common patterns and integral relationships
Persons and environment transformations are created in human consciousness
Integration of human and environment meanings results in adaptation (Roy&Andrew, 1999, p.35).
Philosophical Assumptions
Persons have mutual relationships with the world and God
Human meaning is rooted in the omega point convergence of the universe.
God is intimately revealed in the diversity of creation and is the common destiny of creation.
Persons use human creative abilities of awareness, enlightenment, and faith.
Persons are accountable for the processes of deriving, sustaining and transforming the universe (Roy & Andrew, 1999, p. 35).