EDUCATION AND CAREER

Faye graduated from the Ann May School of Nursing, Neptune, New
Jersey, in 1942 with a diploma in nursing. The school was later renamed
the Raleigh Fitkin-Paul Morgan Memorial Hospital School of Nursing.
She could have worked as a nurse at this time, but she had a strong
belief in the value of education and felt that nursing practice should be
based on research rather than just hours of care. 

She continued her education from 1942 to 1944 at Rutgers University,

New Jersey, where she studied chemistry. In 1945, she earned a
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Teacher's College of
Columbia University in New York City. During this time, Abdellah was
the manager of a primary care clinic at the Child Education Foundation
in New York City and also was the manager of the obstetrics-
gynecology nursing floor at Columbia University's Presbyterian Medical
Center. 

From 1945 to 1949, she was a member of the faculty of Yale University.
It was while she was there that a very interesting event took place that
influenced the rest of her career. In her position as graduate instructor,
she was required to teach from the book, 120 Principles of Nursing
Practice. This book was published by the National League for Nursing
(NLN) in 1937 and was part of the curriculum. The students questioned
the principles, and Abdellah could find no scientific basis for the
guidelines. Because of her frustration, she gathered her colleagues in the
university courtyard and burned the books. She later recalled that the
dean required her to pay for the books, and it took her a year to do that
while only being able to afford to eat peanut butter sandwiches. 

In remembering this incident, she did say that she has mellowed since
then, but that sometimes you have to "create a revolution." She respected
her students for questioning the scientific basis for procedures and spent
the rest of her life questioning and researching the science behind
nursing practice. She also said that this experience inspired her to study
physiology for which she received a master's degree in 1947. She went
on to receive a doctorate in education as well. With her education, she
could have become a medical doctor, but she felt that nursing was the
right profession for her because it was a caring profession. 

In 1949, Dr. Abdellah met Lucile Petry Leone, the founder of the Cadet
Nurse Corps and later the first woman Assistant Surgeon General of the
U.S. Public Health Service and Chief Nurse Officer. Because of Leone's
influence, she decided to join the Public Health Service Commissioned
Corps and spent the next forty-one years in their service. Her first few
years there were spent performing studies and research in numerous
hospitals to improve nursing practice. 

During the Korean conflict, Abdellah was on active duty as part of the
Navy and worked with the Korean people as well as those in other
countries, teaching them to deal with various public health problems. As
a senior officer, she was able to advise and assist them in a number of
studies. 

Her forty-one-year career in the Public Health Service was filled with
many achievements. She served as the Chief Nurse Officer and became
the first nurse in any service to receive the rank of a two-star rear
admiral. In her position as Deputy Surgeon General, she made changes
in many vital areas of public health including those of drug addiction,
alcoholism, AIDS, smoking cessation, violence, mental illness and
hospice care. She was very interested in gerontological care and worked
very hard to establish nursing home standards in the 1970s. 

After retirement from the Public Health Service in 1989, Dr. Abdellah
founded the Graduate School of Nursing at the Uniformed Services
University in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1993 and was its first dean. It was
the only federal graduate school of nursing in the United States. In
addition to her duties there, she conducted international workshops on
nursing care and research. After more than 50 years of service to the
government, Abdellah retired in 2002. 

HONORS AND AWARDS

Dr. Abdellah's list of honors and awards is overwhelming. She has
received over 70 honorary degrees and awards including the 1994
Living Legend Award given by the American Academy of Nursing. In
1999, she was inducted into Columbia University's Hall of Fame, in
2000, she was named to the National Women's' Hall of Fame and in
2012, was inducted into the American Nurses Association Hall of Fame.
She continued to work well into her eighties, contributing to the body of
nursing research and knowledge. 

NURSING THEORY
Dr. Abdellah's typology of Twenty-one Nursing Problems helped
transform nursing from a disease centered to a patient centered
profession. She conducted research and shared her knowledge through
her teaching and writing. As an outgrowth of her theory, she is credited
with making major innovations in nursing including developing the first
nationwide tested coronary care unit and the Patient Assessment of Care
Evaluation (PACE) system of standards for health care facilities. She
also was instrumental in developing the diagnostic related groups
(DRGs) that has become the standard coding system that helps reduce
health care costs. In addition, her work is being used to develop an
international classification of nursing practice in a way that will provide
a unifying framework for nursing.