WATERFORD – More than 40 years after forming a model as a guide to better treat patients, nursing pioneer and Watertown resident Betty Neuman is being recognized for her internationally known work.

Neuman was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal from Walsh University in October. It is awarded to people who have achieved national stature.

Karen Gehrling, professor and director of the Graduate Nursing Program at Walsh University, said use of the model around the globe was a distinguishing factor for the award.

“It’s one of the most-used models in the history of nursing,” said Gehrling. “It had a lot of impact on a lot of people all the way around the world.”

In 1972, Neuman created the Neuman Systems Model to be used in the classroom for nursing.

“I developed it at UCLA for teaching students,” said Neuman, 90. “It got into a book and other schools began to use it throughout the country and overseas…It was kind of a matter of desperation in a way; I had an idea in my mind of doing something to make it easy to give holistic care; nobody (then) was talking about holistic care.”

Holistic care takes in many factors used to treat a person, including body, mind, spirit and emotions. The Neuman Systems Model takes into account the person as a whole, which includes the physiological self, psychological self, developmental self (age range), sociocultural self and the spiritual self.

“Those five variables of a person define a person’s inner stressors and external stressors and can help us to diagnose and treat…clients holistically,” Neuman said.

Neuman’s career started at People’s Hospital in Akron, which is now the Akron General Medical Center. She got her RN degree in 1947 in the Cadet Nurse Corps, but World War II ended before she could make use of her training. She got her Masters of Nursing degree in 1966 and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology in 1985. She is originally from the Lowell area and said she got her love of medicine from her parents.

“I had a mother who was a midwife…and my father died when I was 11,” she said. “He loved the nurses at the Ohio State University. (My parents) were great influences on my becoming a nurse.”

The Neuman Systems Model isn’t specifically for one culture, so it can be widely used.

“It crosses cultural variables; I’ve traveled all over the world and it works very well with other cultures because the terminology is simple,” said Neuman.

Neuman has trustees that carry out the model’s idea of a holistic approach; three in Holland, two in Canada and 15 across the United States.

“People…use it with families and children,” she said. “It’s very flexible and comprehensive…It’s easy to utilize.”

Gehrling serves as one of the trustees who carries out the work of the model and, like Neuman, said it provides a certain ease of use.

“I don’t think when she started it she thought it would be this big,” said Gehrling. “It gives people a common model, a common way of looking at things and a way to decide how to intervene in people’s lives.”

Gehrling said the award is richly deserved.

“I’ve known Betty a very long time,” she said. “She has done so much and is from Ohio…She’s one of the unsung heroes in Ohio in terms of nursing…I thought it was time to recognize it.”

Neuman said the model fits an emerging and continuing trend in health care.

“People are interested in preserving health and…very interested in preventing illness, maintaining a healthy state,” she said.

The model is no longer just used in nursing; it’s used across health care disciplines.