EVELYN ADAM

Evelyn Adam's track record is impressive: 14 years old nurse, 23 years old university professor, member
of an impressive number of committees and juries, author of a book published in seven languages. His
name is known to nurses around the world. In 1987, Evelyn Adam's name appeared in Who's Who in the
World, an international directory of luminaries from different professional circles; in 1989 it is found in
the International Directory of Distinguished Leadership, a prestigious publication of the American
Biographical Institute.

The Université de Montréal recognized the exceptional contribution and international influence of Ms.
Adam by conferring on her the title of professor emeritus. Laval University in Quebec City awarded her
an honorary doctorate for her contribution to the advancement of nursing sciences. Modest despite all
these honors, she admits to having been surprised to receive the 1995 Insignia of Merit from the Ordre
des infirmières et infirmiers du Québec.

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TEACHING CARE

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In 1950, Evelyn Adam obtained her nursing diploma from Hôtel-Dieu in Kingston, Ontario. She worked as

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a nursing nurse in various establishments in this province for four years before coming to Quebec for a

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six-month refresher training at the Montreal Neurological Institute, which ended with a job offer. In
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order to be able to address the seriously ill treated by the Institute in their mother tongue, she enrolled
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in French lessons, a decision that would change the course of her career.
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After being a nursing nurse for six years at the Montreal Neurological Institute, then head nurse, she
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became a nursing nurse in Lausanne, Switzerland. Upon her return, she accepted a similar position at
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Sainte-Justine Hospital before becoming a clinical teacher at the Montreal Rehabilitation Institute. Evelyn
Adam was so well integrated into the Francophone community that she chose to undertake her
bachelor's degree in nursing at the University of Montreal.
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Her career then took a new turn: she would henceforth be a professor in the faculty of nursing at the
university that trained her. After a few years of teaching, she obtained leave to do her master's degree in
nursing at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her career was forever marked by the influence of
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one of her professors, Dorothy E. Johnson, who conveyed to her her constant concern for clarifying the
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meaning of "being a nurse".

CHOOSE A REFERENCE SCHEME

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Her desire to clarify professional identity led her to write Being a Nurse, first published in 1979. A year
later, she wrote To Be a Nurse. “It was not a simple translation, but an update, insists Ms. Adam, and it
has been so for each subsequent edition, both in French and in English. Over the years, his book has
been translated into Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. Nurses, teachers, managers and
researchers in many countries know what Evelyn Adam denies calling a theory: “One day, we even talked

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 about my petal theory, because one of the illustrations I use to explain the professional overlaps within
the interdisciplinary team looks like a flower. It is not at all a theory, far from it. "

Rather, it seeks to make nurses understand that beyond these overlaps the nursing profession has its
own characteristics. "My name is associated with conceptual models, but today, I prefer to speak of
schemas of reference or conceptions of the discipline, because the word" model "sometimes triggers
negative reactions", notes the recipient of the Insignia of the deserved.

A reference scheme is a nursing concept. “Nurses are often seen as medical assistants by the public, by
physicians, and sometimes by nurses themselves,” says Adam. In addition, they claim to be members of
an independent profession, which makes a special contribution. These two elements are however
incompatible: either we are medical assistants, or we are something else; the schema of reference helps
to clarify this "other thing".

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FOR A COMPLETE DESIGN OF THE DISCIPLINE

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A complete conception of the discipline should encompass all fields of activity of the profession: training,
research and practice. In the current context of transformation of the health system, nurses must more

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than ever be aware of their contribution, "without however ruling out interdisciplinarity," explains Evelyn
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Adam. On the contrary, you have to collaborate with other professionals, but any form of collaboration is
impossible as long as you are not aware of your own contribution, and as long as you do not know how
to explain it to your colleagues. from other disciplines. "
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Evelyn Adam encourages nurses to choose any referral scheme. “Even though I refined Virginia
Henderson's conceptual model, I never claimed it was the best. I just wish all nurses would adopt one.
“In fact, if Evelyn Adam had been 200 years old before her, she would have gone through all the models
one after the other. “I wanted to do the same with Callista Roy's model, then with Dorothy E. Johnson's,
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and all the others, but I never found the time to do it. "
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In demand from all sides, Ms. Adam has indeed had a very busy schedule throughout her career. She was
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a nursing expert for a selection committee and consultant for setting up a university program; she has
supervised a large number of graduate students; she coordinated a project aimed at improving the
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quality of care in Algeria; she wrote the preface to the French version of Virginia Henderson's biography;
she has published an impressive list of articles on nursing; and she defined the role of the nurse in
various nursing research projects.
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CONSULTANT TODAY

Evelyn Adam has been officially retired since 1989. However, she continues to lecture regularly in
Canada, Switzerland and Italy, always on the subject of the professional identity of nurses.

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 For several years, she has collaborated in the writing of a book with Sylvie Lauzon, a young colleague
from the University of Montreal. This work, which will appear in 1996, deals with the interventions of
nurses with the elderly, another of her fields of interest. “In 1982, I designed the first course on elderly
care offered at the baccalaureate in nursing sciences at the University of Montreal. "

In short, the circle is complete. And Evelyn Adam concludes, confidentially: “I really enjoyed nursing and
I enjoyed teaching. The lectures that I still give are an extension of my career. "

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