Levine’s Conservation Model
Introduction & Biography
The nursing profession is continuously evolving and dynamic. Ever since Florence Nightingale started writing her notes on nursing, more theories and models about the nursing profession flourished during the last decade; one of these is Myra Levine’s Conservational Theory which was completed in 1973.
Myra Estrin Levine (1920-1996) was born in Chicago, Illinois. She was the oldest of three children. She had one sister and one brother. Levine developed an interest in nursing because her father (who had gastrointestinal problems) was frequently ill and required nursing care on many occasions. Levine graduated from the Cook County School of Nursing in 1944 and obtained her BS in nursing from the University of Chicago in 1949.
Following graduation, Levine worked as a private duty nurse, as a civilian nurse for the US Army, as a surgical nursing supervisor, and in nursing administration. After earning an MS in nursing at Wayne State University in 1962, she taught nursing at many different institutions (George, 2002) such as the University of Illinois at Chicago and Tel Aviv University in Israel. She authored 77 published articles which included “An Introduction to Clinical Nursing” with multiple publication years on 1969, 1973 & 1989. She also received an honorary doctorate from Loyola University in 1992. She died on 1996.
Levine told others that she did not set out to develop a “nursing theory” but had wanted to find a way to teach the major concepts in medical-surgical nursing and attempt to teach associate degree students a new approach for daily nursing activities. Levine also wished to move away from nursing education practices that were strongly procedurally oriented and refocus on active problem solving and individualized patient care (George, 2002).
Major Concepts in the Conservation Model
Environment includes both the internal and external environment. Three Aspects of Environment Drawn upon Bates’ (1967) Classification:
- The operational environment consists of undetected natural forces and that impinge on the individual.
- The perceptual environment consists of information that is recorded by the sensory organs.
- The conceptual environment is influenced by language, culture, ideas, and cognition.
Person: the unique individual in unity and integrity, feeling, believing, thinking, and whole.
Health: the pattern of adaptive change of the whole being.
Nursing: the human interaction relying on communication, rooted in the organic dependency of the individual human being in his relationships with other human beings.
Adaptation: the process of change and integration of the organism in which the individual retains integrity or wholeness. It is possible to have degrees of adaptation.
Conservation: joining together and is the product of adaptation including nursing intervention and patient participation to maintain a safe balance.
Personal integrity: the person’s sense of identity and self-definition. Nursing intervention is based on the conservation of the individual’s personal integrity.
Social integrity: life’s meaning gained through interactions with others. Nurses intervene to maintain relationships.
Structural integrity: healing is the process of restoring structural integrity through nursing interventions that promote healing and maintain structural integrity.
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Additional Information & References
- A great description and outline of the Conservation Theory
- An outline of the conception model
- Levine’s Conservation Model in Nursing Practice by Nurse Key
- The Nursing Process of the Conservation Theory
