Faye Glenn Abdellah

She once said that...

“ Nursing is based on an art and science
that mould the attitudes, intellectual
competencies, and technical skills of the
individual nurse into the desire and ability
to help people, sick or well, cope with their
health needs”
FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH
• Born on March 13,1919 in New York
• Her family subsequently moved to New York Jersey
where she attended high school.
• on May 6, 1937, the German hydrogen-fueled
airship Hindenburg exploded over Lakehurst.
"I could see people jumping from the zeppelin
and I didn't know how to take care of
them, so it was then that I vowed that I
would learn nursing.“
FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH
• She earned a nursing diploma from Fitkin Memorial
Hospital School of Nursing, now know n as Ann
May School of Nursing.
• Abdellah went on to earn three degrees from
Columbia University
– Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing (1945)
– Master of Arts degree in Physiology (1947)
– Doctor of Education degree (1955)
"I never wanted to be an M.D. because I
could do all I wanted to do in nursing,
which is a caring profession."
FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH
• Abdellah was an advocate of degree programs for
nursing.
• Nursing education, should be based on research;
she herself became among the first in her role as an
educator to focus on theory and research.
• In 1957 Abdellah headed a research team in
Manchester.
 FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH
• Abdellah developed the Patient Assessment of Care Evaluation
(PACE), a system of standards used to measure the relative quality
of individual health-care facilities that was still used in the health care
industry into the 21st century.

• Helped change the profession's focus from a disease-centered

approach to a patient-centered approach

• She was also one of the first people in the health care industry to
develop a classification system for patient care and patient-oriented
records.
FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH
• She serve as Chief Nurse Officer from 1970 to 1987 and
was the first nurse to achieve the rank of a two-star Flag
Officer and was named by U.S Surgeon General C. Everett
Koop as the first woman and nurse Deputy Surgeon from
1982-1989.

• Abdellah is well known for her development of the “Twenty-

One (21) Nursing Problem Theory” that has interrelated the
concept of health, nursing problems, and problem solving.
Abdellah has written many articles in professional
journals as well as several books
• Effect of Nurse Staffing on Satisfactions with Nursing
Care (1959)

• Patient-centered Approaches to Nursing (1960)

• Better Patient Care through Nursing Research (1965;

revised 1986)

• Intensive Care, Concepts and Practices for Clinical Nurse

Specialists (1969).
Patient-centered
Approaches
 NURSING

families
individuals

SOCIETY
As a comprehensive service, nursing
includes the following:

1. Recognizing the nursing problems of the

patient;

2. Deciding the appropriate courses of action to

take in terms of relevant nursing principles;

3. Providing continuous care of the individual’s

total health needs;

4. Providing continuous care to relieve pain and

discomfort and provide immediate security for
the individual;

5. Adjusting the total nursing care plan to meet

the patient’s individual needs;
As a comprehensive service, nursing
includes the following:

6. Helping the individual to become more self-directing

in attaining or maintaining a healthy state of mind and
body;

7. Instructing nursing personnel and family to help the

individual do for himself that which he can within his
limitation;
8. Helping the individual to adjust to his limitations
and emotional problems;

9. Working with allied health professions in planning

for optimum health on local, state, national, and
international levels; and

10. Carrying out continuous evaluation and research to

improve nursing techniques to meet the health needs of
people (Abdellah, Beland, and Matthew, 1960, pp. 24-
25).
Abdellah’s Theory
Health
The dynamic pattern of functioning
whereby there is a continued
interaction with internal and external
forces that results in the optimal use
of necessary resources that serve to
minimize vulnerabilities (Abdellah &
Levine, 1986; Torres and Stanton,
1982).
Nursing Problems
For Abdellah, a nursing problem
presented by a patient is a condition
faced by the patient or patient’s
family that the nurse, through the
performance of professional functions,
can assess them to meet (Nicholls &
Wessells, 1977).
Nursing- Disease-
centered centered

Client-centered
Basic Nursing Specific Common
Problem Problem of a Conditions
Presented by Patient
Patient
Problems Solving
Quality professional nursing care
requires that nurses be able to identify
and solve overt and covert nursing
problems. These requirements can be met by
the problem-solving process involves
identifying the problem, selecting
pertinent data, formulating hypotheses,
testing hypotheses through the collection
of data, and revising hypotheses when
necessary on the basis of conclusions
obtained from the data.
THE TWENTY-ONE NURSING PROBLEMS
The 21 nursing problems fall into three
categories: physical, sociological, and emotional
needs of patients; types of interpersonal
relationships between the patient and nurse; and
common elements of patient care. She used
Henderson’s 14 basic human needs and nursing
research to establish the classification of nursing
problems.
 Abdellah’s 21 Nursing Problems
1. To maintain good hygiene and physical comfort 12. To identify and accept positive and negative expressions,
feelings, and reactions
2. To promote optimal activity: exercise, rest, sleep.
13. To identify and accept interrelatedness of emotions and
3. To promote safety through prevention of accident, injury, organic illness
or other trauma and through prevention of the spread
of infection. 14. To facilitate the maintenance of effective verbal and
nonverbal communication
4. To maintain good body mechanics and prevent and
correct deformity 15. To promote the development of productive interpersonal
relationships
5. To facilitate the maintenance of a supply of oxygen to all
body cells 16. To facilitate progress toward achievement and personal
spiritual goals
6. To facilitate the maintenance of nutrition for all body cells
17. To create or maintain a therapeutic environment
7. To facilitate the maintenance of elimination
8. To facilitate the maintenance of fluid and electrolyte 18. To facilitate awareness of self as an individual with
balance varying physical, emotional, and developmental needs

9. To recognize the physiologic responses of the body to 19. To accept the optimum possible goals in the light of
disease conditions—pathologic, physiologic, and limitations, physical and emotional
compensatory
20. To use community resources as an aid in resolving
10. To facilitate the maintenance of regulatory mechanisms problems that arise from illness
and functions
21. To understand the role of social problems as influencing
11. To facilitate the maintenance of sensory function factors in the cause of illness
Adellah’s Theory and
Nuring’s Metaparadigm
• Individual

• Health

• Environment

• Nursing
Applications of 21 Nursing Problems:
The use of the 21 nursing problems of
Abdellah in the nursing process
serves primarily to direct the nurse
in identifying the areas in which the
patient needs the nurse’s help.
Applications of 21 Nursing Problems:
• Assessment
• Nursing Diagnoses and Outcomes
• Planning and Implementation
• Evaluation
 REFERENCES
• Julia B. George, RN, PhD.
Nursing Theories: The Base for
Professional Nursing Practice.
2002
• Suzanne M. Falco. Nursing
Theories: The Base for
Professional Nursing Practice.
2002