In 1970, Betty Neuman developed her own theory to provide nursing educators and students with a new concept of the human experience and health (Parker, 2006, p. 281) . “The Neuman Systems Model provides a comprehensive, flexible, holistic, and systemic perspective for nursing” (Neuman cited in Parker, 2006, p. 282). This theory has many clinical implications and lends itself to many nursing situations. The Neuman Systems model describes an individual as “a system capable of absorbing extrapersonal and interpersonal factors from the external environment. He [or she] interacts with this environment by adapting to it, or by adjusting it to himself” (Neuman, 1982, p. 14). This systems model involves many other concepts, such as stressors, primary, secondary and tertiary prevention and lines of defense. These concepts create the structure of a person and their health care, and their relationship to existing biological factors of humans provides Neuman's model and ability to be both easily explained and easily accepted within the context of health care. American health. Neuman views the human being as a system in order to explain the interaction that an individual has with an environment as being a case where a stressor crosses one of the individual's lines of defense. Stressors are “various disruptive forces acting within or on [a client system]” (Parker, 2006, p. 282). To ward off these stressors, Neuman proposed the existence of lines of defense that inherently protect the client system. “Each individual customer-client system has developed a normal range of responses to the environment, called a normal line of defense” (Parker, 2006, p. 283). She added... middle of document ...... the model effectively communicates the etiology of various diseases and health conditions to clients, regardless of their education level. It also helps structure nursing education and research in a variety of settings, as evidenced by its use for nursing leadership in Pennsylvania. Neuman's model will remain an integral part of American nursing for many years to come. Betty Neuman and Martha Rogers both espoused different theories during the 1970s, but when viewed side by side, we see that they have a lot in common when it comes to how nurses should view both the nursing practice and the client. For example, both theories view nursing as a separate entity from medicine. “Rogers urged nurses to develop self-contained, community-based nursing centers” (Parker, 2006, p. 165). According to Parker, Neuman also wanted this same goal.