Born 1924 near Lowell, Ohio.
In 1947 she received RN Diploma from Peoples Hospital School of Nursing, Akron, Ohio. She then moved to California and gained experience as a hospital, staff, and head nurse; school nurse and industrial nurse; and as a clinical instructor in medical-surgical, critical care and communicable disease nursing. In 1957 Dr. Neuman attended the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with double major in psychology and public health. She received BS in nursing from UCLA. In 1966 she received Masters degree in Mental Health, Public Health Consultation fom UCLA.
Dr. Neuman is recognized as pioneer in the field of nursing involvement in community mental health. She began developing her model while lecturing in community mental health at UCLA. In 1972 her model was first published as a 'Model for teaching total person approach to patient problems' in Nursing Research. In 1985 she received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Pacific Western University. In 1998 she received a second honorary doctorate, this one from Grand Valley State University, Allendale, Michigan.
The Neuman Systems Model was originally developed in 1970 at the University of California, Los Angeles, by Betty Neuman, Ph.D., RN. The model was developed by Dr. Neuman as a way to teach an introductory nursing course to nursing students. The goal of the model was to provide a wholistic overview of the physiological, psychological, sociocultural, and developmental aspects of human beings. After a two-year evaluation of the model, it was published in Nursing Research (Neuman & Young, 1972).
