NURSING THEORETICAL WORKS
is an underlying principle of putting the patient
A. ARTS AND SCIENCE OF HUMANISTIC NURSING
1. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE
(ENVIRONMENTAL THEORY)
 born on May 12, 1820, in Florence, Italy.
 second daughter of William Edward Nightingale
and Frances Nightingale and sister of
Parthenope Nightingale Verney
 A social Reformer
 A Statistician
 The Mother of Modern Nursing
 The Lady with the Lamp in Crimean War
 Belong to an upper-class family
 Refused the life of traditional women of her
time
 Religious inspiration led her to devote her life to
serving others, both directly and as a reformer.
 On February 17, 1837, she experienced one of
several “calls from God,” She viewed her calling
as reducing human suffering. Nursing seemed
the suitable route to serve God and humankind.
 She traveled in Europe looking at hospitals and
in 1844, she enrolled as a nursing student at the
Lutheran Hospital of Pastor Fliedner in
Kaiserswerth, Germany.
 Nightingale died on August 13, 1910, at the age
of 90 in her home in London.
 She is buried at St. Margaret’s Church, East
Wellow, near Embley Park.
 The Crimean monument in Waterloo Place,
London erected in 1915 was done in honor of
the contribution Florence Nightingale had made
to the war and the health of the army.
LITERARY WORKS
 “Notes on Nursing: What it Is, and what it is Not”
(1860) was one of these publications and was the
first textbook specifically for use in the teaching of
nurses and translated into many languages.
 “Notes on Hospitals” (1859)
 “Notes on Nursing for the Laboring Classes” (1861)
Presentation of Concepts, Relationships, Model, and
Nursing Metaparadigm:
• ENVIRONMENTAL THEORY
- It focuses on the alteration of the patient’s
environment in order to affect change in his or
her health.
- It is a Patient-care Theory.
METAPARADIGM/MAJOR CONCEPTS:
ENVIRONMENT:
- linked Health with the “Five Environmental
Factors” namely:
 Pure or Fresh Air,
 Pure Water,
 Efficient Drainage,
 Cleanliness,
 Light.
- It also refers to the “Health of Houses” which
in condition which is best for nature to act upon
him/her.
METAPARADIGM/MAJOR CONCEPTS:
INDIVIDUAL:
- The One receiving the care, wherein he/she is a
multidimensional being, that includes biological,
psychological, social, and spiritual component.
- A Recipient with vital Reparative Process to deal with
disease and health but passive in terms of influencing
the environment or the nurse.
HEALTH:
-Not just the absence of disease. Health is not only to be
well, but to be able to use well every power that we
have.
-Health is maintained through the prevention of disease
via Environmental Health factors.
NURSING:
-as “the act of utilizing the environment of the patient
to assist him/her in his/her recovery”
-It is the provision of optimal conditions to enhance the
person’s reparative processes and prevent the
reparative process from being interrupted.
THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS:
1. There is a belief that the nurturing/surrounding
environment, the body could repair itself.
2. The poor environmental conditions are directly
related to the patient’s disease or ailment.
3. Her general concepts about ventilation, cleanliness,
quiet, warmth & diet remain integral parts of nursing
and health care today.
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE’s ENVIRONMENTAL MODEL:
“THE 10 CANONS OF ENVIRONMENT”
1. Ventilation- refers to the overall temperature of the
surrounding.
2. Noise- it could be good or bad noise. It refers to the
avoidance of sudden and loud noises that might affect
the stability of the patient such as when he/she is taking
a rest.
3. Air - it could either be polluted/unclean or clean.
4. Nutrition- it refers to the diet and intake of a certain
patient/individual that might affect his/her body
condition.
5. Light- it could either be natural (sunlight) or
unnatural.
6. Bedding- it refers to the condition of the bed that the
patient/individual is resided to.
7. Variety- it refers to the factors that could help ease
the patient’s boredom and depression.
8. Health of Houses- this includes the Five
environmental factors namely Pure or Fresh Air, Pure
Water, Efficient Drainage, Cleanliness, and Light.
9. Chattering Hopes- it refers to the encouragement
and motivation that the nurse could give to the patient
to soothe his psychological, mental, and emotional
condition that would aid in his/her fast recovery.
10. Cleanliness- it refers to the sanitation of the
environment as well as the hygiene of the nurse that is
giving the interventions.
APPLICATION OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL THEORY:
1. NURSING PRACTICE:
A. PROVISION OF SANITATION
B. KEEPING THE PATIENT WARM
C. MAINTAINING A NOISE-FREE ENVIRONMENT
D. ATTENDING TO PATIENT’S DIET
(ASSESSMENT OF INTAKE, TIMELINESS OF THE
FOOD AND ITS EFFECT ON THE PATIENT)
E. REGULAR HOSPITAL WARD/UNIT VS. ICU VS.
COMMUNITY
F. PSYCHIATRIC WARD MANAGEMENT
G. TELEMEDICINE DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC
2. NURSING RESEARCH:
A. QUANTITATIVE NURSING RESEARCH
B. QUALITATIVE NURSING RESEARCH
VIRGINIA HENDERSON
(DEFINITION OF NURSING AND THE 14 BASIC NEEDS)
 born on November 30, 1897
 born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1897
 fifth of the eight children of Lucy Minor Abbot
and Daniel B. Henderson.
 She enlisted in the Army School of Nursing in
Washington, D.C., where students were treated
more like cadets.
 Her career as a nursing educator started in 1924
at the Norfolk Protestant Hospital in Virginia
where she was the first and only teacher in the
nursing school.
 She is a respected educator and researcher.
 She published a book entitled the 'Nature of
Nursing' where she gained the title "The first
lady of Nursing" or the "Florence Nightingale of
the 20th century"
Literary Works:
 The three editions of the Principles and Practice
of Nursing (1955),
 Basic Principles of Nursing Care (1960) and
revised in 1972.
 The Nature of Nursing (1966)
Presentation of Concepts, Relationships, Model, and
Nursing Metaparadigm:
- She formulated a definition of a unique
function of nursing.
- This definition was a major stepping stone in
the emergence of Nursing as a discipline
separate from medicine.
NURSING:
“The unique function of the nurse is to assist the
individual, sick or well, in the performance of those
activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to a
peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he
had necessary strength, will or knowledge. And to do
this in such a way as to help him gain independence as
rapidly as possible.”
PERSON/HUMAN:
- Considered as biological, psychological, sociological,
spiritual components.
- Have basic needs reflected on 14 components.
- Mind & body are inseparable and must maintain
physiological and emotional balance.
- The individual and family should be viewed as a unit.
- No two individuals are alike, each is unique.
ENVIRONMENT:
- Henderson stated that everything that is outside of the
patient but is connected to the patient is considered the
environment and the 14 basic human needs should be
connected to the environment.
- Pertains to family but rarely to community.
- She strongly believes that the society expects nurse’s
services of acting for patients who are disabled and
function independently.
HEALTH:
-Ability of the individual to function independently.
-Needs the necessary strength, will or knowledge to
achieve or maintain health
MAJOR ASSUMPTIONS:
1. Nurse’s care for patients until they can care for
themselves once again.
2. Patients desire to return to health.
3. Nurses are willing to serve and that “Nurses will
devote themselves to the patient day and night.
4. Henderson also believes that the “mind and body are
inseparable and are interrelated.
THE 14 BASIC NEEDS:
Virginia Henderson enumerated 14 components that
will make up the basic nursing care (fundamental
needs), which are as follows:
PHYSIOLOGIC:
1. Breath Normally
2. Eat & drink adequately
3. Eliminate Body wastes
4. Move & maintain desirable position
5. Sleep & Rest
6. Select suitable clothes
7. Maintain body temperature within normal range by
adjusting clothing and modifying the environment
8. Keep the body clean & well groomed & protect the
integument
9. Avoid dangers in the environment & avoid injuring
others.
10. Communicate with others in expressing emotions,
needs, fears, or opinions - (PSYCHOLOGICAL)
11. Worship according to one’s faith - (SPIRITUAL)
12. Work in such a way that there is a sense of
accomplishment - (SOCIOLOGICAL)
13. Play or participate in various forms of recreation -
(SOCIOLOGICAL)
14. Learn, discover, or satisfy the curiosity that leads to
normal development and health and use the available
health facilities - (PSYCHOLOGICAL)
APPLICATION OF THE 14 BASIC NEEDS OF PATIENT IN:
1. NURSING PRACTICE
2. NURSING RESEARCH
FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH
(21 NURSING PROBLEMS)
- The first nurse and the first woman who served as
Deputy Surgeon General.
- She developed the “21 Nursing Problem Theory,”
which shifted the nursing focus from disease-centered
to patient-centered, and began to include families and
elderly in nursing care.
- Abdellah’s theory is a Patient—Center Approach to
Nursing, which emphasizes the science of nursing and
has elicited changes throughout nursing.
- She formulated it as an instrument for Nursing
education, to serve as guide care in hospital institutions
and Community Health Nursing.
Presentation of Concepts, Relationships, Model, and
Nursing Metaparadigm:
3 COMPONENTS OF F.G. ABDELLAH’S THEORY:
1. METAPARADIGM
2. THE NURSING PROBLEMS
3. PROBLEM SOLVING APPROACH/PROCESS
“THE 21 NURSING PROBLEMS”:
NURSING PROBLEMS:
- Conditions faced by the patient and/or family which
the nurse can assist him or them to meet through the
performance of her professional function.
- OVERT & COVERT NURSING PROBLEMS
OVERT – “Objective cues” (Largely Physical) (ex. Wound
on the skin, yellowish sclerae, blood in the urine, watery
stools)
COVERT – “Subjective cues” (Largely Subjective) (ex.
Body weakness (malaise), numbness of hands, dizziness,
nausea, headache)
METAPARADIGM/MAJOR CONCEPTS:
PERSON (Individuals and families):
- pertains to the recipients of Nursing. They are people
who have physical, emotional, and sociological needs.
Patient is described as the only justification for the
existence of nursing.
HEALTH:
- as she described as a comprehensive service, is “total
health needs” and “a healthy state of mind and body”.
It is also a state mutually exclusive of illness
ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY:
- pertains to “planning for optimum health on local,
state, and international levels.” But Abdellah believes
that the individual is the focus of Nursing services. It is
the home or community from which patient comes
from.
NURSING:
-is a helping profession. Nursing care is providing
information or doing something for/to the person with
the goals of meeting needs, increasing or restoring self-
help ability, or alleviating impairment.
- Grouped into 21 Nursing problems area to guide care
& promote use of Nursing judgement.
Presentation of Concepts, Relationships and
Model:
PROBLEM SOLVING APPROACH:
- step by step process; systematic way of dealing with
Nursing problems.
-The process of identifying Nursing problems
(interpreting, analyzing, and selecting appropriate
courses of action to solve these problems).
THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS:
According to Abdellah, her assumptions relate to
change and anticipated changes that affect nursing.
-the need to appreciate the interconnectedness of
social enterprises and social problems.
-the impact of problems such as poverty, racism,
pollution, education, and so forth on health and health
care delivery.
- The changing nursing education; continuing education
for professional nurses.
20. To use community resources as an aid in resolving
problems that arise from illness.
21. To understand the role of social problems as
influencing factors in the cause of illness.

KEY EMPHASIS:
PROBLEM SOLVING APPROACH/PROCESS:
PATIENT’S PROBLEMS DETERMINE APPROPRIATE
(10 STEPS)
NURSING CARE FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH’S TYPOLOGY OF
1. Learn to know the patient.
THE 21 NURSING PROBLEMS:
2. Sort out relevant and significant data.
A. BASIC TO ALL PATIENTS (PREVENTIVE CARE NEEDS):
3. Make generalizations about available data in relation
1. To maintain good hygiene and physical comfort.
to similar nursing problems presented by other patients.
2. To promote optimal activity: exercise, rest, sleep.
4. Identify the therapeutic plan.
3. To promote safety through prevention of accident,
5. Test generalizations with the patient and make
injury, or other trauma and through prevention of the
additional generalizations.
spread of infection.
6. Validate the patient’s conclusions about his nursing
4. To maintain good body mechanics and prevent and
problems.
correct deformity.
7. Continue to observe and evaluate the patient over a
B. PHYSIOLOGICAL (SUSTENAL CARE NEEDS):
period of time to identify any attitudes and clues
5. To facilitate the maintenance of a supply of oxygen to affecting his or her behavior.
all body cells.
8. Explore the patient and his or her family’s reactions
6. To facilitate the maintenance of nutrition for all body to the therapeutic plan and involve them in the plan.
cells.
9. Identify how the nurses feel about the patient’s
7. To facilitate the maintenance of elimination. nursing problems.

8. To facilitate the maintenance of fluid and electrolyte 10. Discuss and develop a comprehensive nursing care
balance. plan.

9. To recognize the physiologic responses of the body to APPLICATION OF FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH’S
disease conditions pathologic, physiologic, and
THEORY:
compensatory.
1. NURSING PRACTICE:
10. To facilitate the maintenance of regulatory
mechanisms and functions. A. NURSING PROCESS (ADPIE)
11. To facilitate the maintenance of sensory function. B. NURSING CARE PLAN (NCP)
C. EMOTIONAL, INTERPERSONAL & SPIRITUAL 2. NURSING RESEARCH:
(REMEDIAL CARE NEEDS):
A. QUANTITATIVE NURSING RESEARCH
12. To identify and accept positive and negative
expressions, feelings, and reactions. B. QUALITATIVE NURSING RESEARCH

13. To identify and accept interrelatedness of emotions

and organic illness.

14. To facilitate the maintenance of effective verbal and

nonverbal communication.

15. To promote the development of productive

interpersonal relationships.

16. To facilitate progress toward achievement and

personal spiritual goals.

17. To create or maintain a therapeutic environment.

18. To facilitate awareness of self as an individual with

varying physical, emotional, and developmental needs.

D. SOCIOLOGICAL (RESTORATIVE CARE NEEDS):

19. To accept the optimum possible goals in the light of

limitations, physical and emotional.