FAYE ABDELLAH

21 Nursing Problems
 Born on March 13, 1919 in New York City
 Began her nursing career in 1942 when she received her diploma in nursing from
Fitkin Memorial Hospital school of Nursing in Neptune, New Jersey
 BSN – 1945, MA-1947 , doctoral of Education -1955 from Teacher's College,
 Columbia University, New York City
 Became the 1st nurse & 1st woman to serve as Deputy Surgeon General of the
United States
 Was inducted into the US National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000 due to her
contributions in the field of Education & Nursing Research
 She was motivated to develop hertypology by a desire to promote comprehensive,
client-centered nursing care – she used the problem solving approach as basis for
her typology
 Her typology of Nursing problems was 1st published in 1960 in Patient Centered
Approaches in Nursing

METAPARADIGM ON NURSING

PERSON
→ Is the recipient of nursing care
→ One who has physical, emotional or sociological needs, helping a person with these
needs is nursing’s only justfication
→ According to Abdellah: the typology of nursing problems evolve from the recognition
of a need for patient-centered approaches to nursing
→ Includes families as well as individuals
→ Is capable of learning & of self-help to varying degrees

HEALTH
→ Defined as the center & purpose of nursing services
→ She speaks to a “total health needs” & a “healthy state of mind & body”
→ Viewed as a state that excludes illness
→ Can also be described as a state in which the person has no unmet needs & no
anticipated or actual impairments

ENVIRONMENT
→ Least discussed concept in Abdellah’smodel
→ ncludes the atmosphere of a client’sroom, home & community
NURSING
→ Is a helping profession
→ Considers nursing to be an all-inclusive service that is based on the disciplines of
art & science that serves individuals sick or well, cope with their health needs
→ Uses the nursing process, a problem-solving approach
→ Can use the 21 nursing problems as a guide from nursing care

General Information

▪ A theoretical statement from Abdellah’s works can be created by utilizing her 3 chief
concepts of Health, Nursing Problems, and Problem Solving
▪ Abdellah’s theory proposes that nursing is the “utilization of the problem-solving
techniques with chief nursing problems related to the health requirements of clients.
▪ It gives much importance to problem-solving as medium for the nursing problems as
the client is geared in the direction of health, which is theoutcome

NURSING PROBLEMS

 A Nursing Problem is defined as any condition presented or faced by a client or

family for which a nurse can offer assistance
 Health needs are seen as problems, which may be:
a) overt – obvious or can be seen condition
b) covert – unseen or masked one

 According to Abdellah, the practice of competent nursing care in the future is for the
nursing student to realize that identifying & answering overt & covert nursing
problems is the core of Nursing
 The Typology of 21 Nursing Problems: the identification & classification of problems
 Abdellah’s typology as divided into three areas:
a) physical, sociological & emotional needs of the patient
b) types of interpersonal relationships between the nurse & the patient
c) common elements of patient care

TYPOLOGY OF 21 NURSING
PROBLEMS

1. To maintain good hygiene & physical comfort

2. To promote optimal activity: exercise, rest, sleep
3. To promote safety through prevention of accident, injury or other trauma & through
the prevention of the spread of infection
4. To maintain good body mechanics & prevent & correct deformity
5. To facilitate the maintenance of a supply of oxygen to all body cells.
6. To facilitate the maintenance of nutrition of all body cells
7. To facilitate the maintenance of elimination.
8. To facilitate the maintenance of fluid & electrolyte balance
9. To recognize the physiological responses of the body to disease conditions –
pathological, physiological & compensatory
10. To facilitate the maintenance of regulatory mechanisms & functions
11. To facilitate the maintenance of sensory function.
12. To identify & accept positive & negative expression, feelings & reactions.
13. To identify & accept interrelatedness of emotions & organic illness
14. To facilitate the maintenance of effective verbal & nonverbal communication.
15. To promote the development of productive interpersonal relationships
16. To facilitate progress toward achievement & personal spiritual goals
17. To create or maintain a therapeutic environment
18. To facilitate awareness of self as individual with varying physical, emotional &
developmental needs
19. To accept the optimum possible goals in the light of limitations, physical & emotional
20. To use community resources as an aidin resolving problems arising from illness
21. To understand the role of social problems as influencing factors in the cause of
illness

PROBLEM SOLVING

▪ The process of identifying overt & covert nursing problems & interpeting, analyzing
& selecting appropriate actions to solve these problems
▪ The steps resemble the pace of the Nursing process of Assessment,Diagnosis,
Planning, Implementation & Evaluation

The Problem Solving Process includes:

1. Identifying the problem

2. Selecting relevant data
3. Formulating hypotheses
4. Testing hypotheses through the collection of data
5. Revising hypotheses when necessary on the basis of conclusions obtained from the
data