ABDELLAH’S THEORY
SUBMITTED BY – NEHA BHARTI
CLASS – M.Sc NURSING

INTRODUCTION:-
 Faye Glenn Abdellah
was one of the most
influential nursing
theorist and public
health scientists. It is
extremely rare to find
someone who has
dedicated all her life to
the advancement of
the nursing profession
and accomplish this
feat with so much
distinction and merit.

BIOGRAPGY:-
 Faye Glenn Abdellah was born on March 13,
1919, in New York city.
EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS:-
 In 1942, Abdellah earned a nursing diploma
from Fitkin Memorial Hospital’s School of
Nursing New Jersey (now Ann may school of
Nursing).
 She received her B.Sc degree in 1945, a
Master of Arts degree in 1947 and Doctor of
Education in Teacher’s College, Columbia
University.
 In 1947 she also took Master of Arts Degree
in Physiology.

AS AN EDUCATOR AND
RESEARCHER:-
 Abdellah went on to become a nursing
instructor and researcher and helped
transform the focus of the profession from
disease centered to patient centered. She
explained the role of nurses to include care of
families and the elderly.
 She worked in many setting. She had been a
staff nurse, a head nurse, a faculty member
at Yale University and at Columbia University,
a public health nurse, a researcher and an
author of more than 147 articles and books.
 She was selected as Deputy Surgeon
General in 1982.
 SHE RETIRED IN 1989.

WHAT HAS INFLUENCED FAYE ANDELLAH IN
THE DEVELOPMENT HER OWN MODEL OF
NURSING:-
 1937:- She wanted to be a nurse on
the day she saw Hindenburg explode.
 1949:- She spent 40 years in Public
Health Service where she first became
involved in research, being assigned
to perform studies to improve nursing
practices.
 1960:- she was influenced by the
desire to promote client – centered
comprehensive nursing care.

ABDELLAH’S TYPOLOGY OF
21 NURSING PROBLEMS:-
BASIC TO ALL PATIENTS:-
1. To maintain good hygiene and physical
comfort
2. To promote optimal activity: exercise, rest,
and sleep
3. To promote safety through prevention of
accident, injury, or other trauma and through
the prevention of the spread of infection
4. To maintain good mechanics and prevent
and correct deformity.

CONTD…..
SUSTENAL CARE NEEDS:-
5. Facilitate the maintenance of a supply
of oxygen to all body cell
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
and electrolyte balance.

CONTD….
9. To recognize the physiological
responses of the body to dieses
condition- pathological, physiological,
and compensatory.
10. To facilitate the maintenance of
regulatory mechanisms and functions.
11. To facilitate the maintenance of
sensory function.

CONTD…
REMEDIAL CARE NEEDS:-
12. To identify and accept positive and
negative expressions, feelings and
reactions.
13. To identify and accept
interrelatedness of emotions and
organic illness.
14. To facilitate the maintenance of
effective verbal and non verbal
communication.
15. To promote the development of

CONTD…
16. To facilitate progress toward
achievement of personal spiritual
goals.
17. To create and/ or maintain a
therapeutic environment.
18. To facilitate awareness of self as an
individual with varying physical,
emotional, and developmental needs.

CONTD….
RESTORATIVE CARE NEEDS:-
19. To accept the optimum possible
goals in the light of limitations,
physical and emotional.
20. To use community resources as an
aid in resolving problems arising from
illness.
21. To understand the role of social
problems as influencing factors in the
cause of illness

ASSUMPTION:-
 The language of Abdellah’s framework is
readable and clear.
 Consistent with the decade in which she
was writing, she uses the term ‘she’ for
nurses, ‘he’ for doctors and patients.
 Assumptions are related to
 Change and anticipated change that
affect nursing;
 The need to appropriate the
interconnectedness of social enterprises
and social problem;

CONTD..
 The impact of problems such as
poverty, racism, pollution, education
and so forth on health care delivery;
 Correct identification of nursing
problems influences the judgment in
selecting the next step in solving the
client nursing problems

CONCEPTS:-

MAN/PERSON:-
 Abdellah describes people as
having physical, emotional,
and sociological needs. These
needs may overt, consisting of
largely physical needs, or
covert, such as emotional,
sociological and interpersonal
needs – which are often
missed and perceived
incorrectly
 The individuals (and families)
are the recipients of nursing,
and health, or achieving of it,
is the purpose of nursing
services.

HEALTH:-
 In patient – centered
approaches to nursing,
Abdellah describes health
as a state mutually
exclusive of illness.
 Although Abdellah does
not give a definition of
health, she speaks to
‘total health needs’ and ‘a
healthy state of mind and
body’ in her description of
nursing as a
comprehensive services.

ENVIRONMENT/SOCIETY:-
 The environment is
implicitly defined by
Abdellah as the
home or community
from which patient
comes.
 Society in included in
“planning for
optimum health”.
 However, as Abdellah
further delineated her
ideas, the focus of
nursing service is
clearly the individual.

NURSING:-
 Nursing is a helping profession.
 These would mean a comprehensive
nursing service, this would include:
1. Recognizing the nursing problems of
the patient.
2. Deciding the appropriate actions 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.
5. Adjusting total nursing care plan to
meet the patient’s individual needs.

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.
8. Helping the individual to
adjust to his limitations and
emotional problems.
9. Working with allied health
professional in planning for
optimum health.

STEPS TO IDENTIFY THE
CLIENT’S PROBLEM:-
 Learn to know the patient
 Sort out relevant and significant data
 Make generalizations about available
data in relation to similar nursing
problems presented by other patients
 Identify the therapeutic plan
 Validate the patient's conclusions
about his nursing problems

11 NURSING SKILLS:-
 Observation of health status
 Skills of communication
 Application of knowledge
 Teaching of patients and families
 Planning and organization of work
 Use of resource materials
 Use of personnel resources
 Problem solving
 Direction of work of others
 Therapeutic use of the self
 Nursing procedure.

PURPOSES:-
NURSING PRACTICE:-
 Abdellah’s main goal is the
improvement of the
nursing education.
 The most important impact
of Abdellah's theory to the
nursing practice is that it
helped transform the focus
of the profession from
being ‘disease- centered’
to ‘patient - centered’.
 The steps of the nursing
process are assessment,
diagnosis, planning,
implementation and
evaluation.

NURSING EDUCATION:-
 Professors and educators
realized the importance of
client centered care rather
than focusing on medical
interventions.
 Nursing education then slowly
deviated its concentration
from the complex, medical
concepts, into exercising
better attention to the client
as the primary concern.
 It’s very strong nurse-
centered orientation- is, on
the other hand, it’s major
contribution to nursing
education.

NURSING RESEARCH:-
 Her theories continue to guide
researchers to focus on the
body of nursing knowledge
itself, the identification of
patient problems, the
organization of nursing
interventions, the improvement
of nursing education, and the
structure of the curriculum.
 The extensive research done
regarding the patient’s needs
and problems has served as a
foundation for the development
of what is now known as
nursing diagnosis

USE OF 21 PROBLEMS IN THE
NURSING PROCESS:-

ASSESSMENT PHASE:-
 Nursing problems
provide guidelines for
the collection of data.
 A principle underlying
the problem solving
approach is that for
each identified
problem, pertinent
data are collected.
 The overt or covert
nature of the problems
necessitates a direct
or indirect approach,
respectively.

NURSING DIAGNOSIS:-
 The results of data
collection would
determine the
client’s specific overt
or covert problems.
 These specific
problems would be
grouped under one
or more of the
broader nursing
problems
 The step is
consistent with that
involved in nursing
diagnosis.

PLANNING PHASE:-
•The statement of nursing problem most
closely resemble goal statements.
•Once the problem has been diagnosed, the
nursing goals have established.

IMPLEMENTATION:-
 Using the goals as the framework, a
plan is developed and appropriate
nursing interventions are determined.

EVALUATION:-
 The most appropriate evaluation
would be the nurse progress or lack of
progress toward the achievement of
the stated goals.

MASLOW HENDERSON ABDELLAH
Physiological
needs
1. Breathe normally 1. To facilitate the maintenance of
supply of oxygen to all body cells
2. Eat and drink adequately 2. To facilitate the maintenance of
nutrition of all body cells
3. Eliminate by all avenues of
elimination
3. To facilitate the maintenance of fluid
and electrolyte balance
4.Move & maintain desirable
posture
4. To facilitate the maintenance of
elimination
5. Sleep & rest 5. To maintain good body mechanisms
and prevent and correct deformities
6. Select suitable clothing 6.To promote optimal activity: exercise,
rest and sleep
7. Maintain body temp. 7. To facilitate the maintenance of
regulatory mechanisms and functions
8. Keep body clean and well
groomed & protect the
integument
8. To maintain good hygiene and
physical comfort

MASLOW HENDERSON ABDELLAH
Safety needs 9. Avoid environmental
dangers & avoid injuring
others
9. To promote safety through the prevention
of accidents, injury, or other trauma and
through the prevention of the spread of
infection.
To facilitate the maintenance of sensory
function.
Belongingness
& love needs
10. Communicate with
others
10. To facilitate the maintenance of effective
verbal ad non verbal communication.
To promote the development of productive
IPR.
11.Worship according to
faith
11. To facilitate progress toward
achievement of personal spiritual goals.

MASLOW HENDERSON ABDELLAH
Esteem needs 12. Work at something
providing a sense of
accomplishment.
13. Play or participate in
various forms of
recreation
14. Learn, discover, or
satisfy curiosity.
12. To accept the optimum possible goals
in the light of limitations, physical and
emotional
To recognize the physiological responses
of the body to disease conditions.
13. . To identify and accept positive and
negative expressions, feelings and
reactions.
To identify and accept interrelatedness of
emotions and organic illness.
To create and / or maintain a therapeutic
environment.
14. To facilitate awareness of self as an
individual with varying physical, emotional,
and developmental needs.
To use community resources as an aid in
resolving problems arising from illness.
To understand the role of social problems
as influencing factors in the cause of
illness

CHARACTERISTICS 1:-
 Abdellah’s theory has interrelated the
concepts of health, nursing problems
and problem solving as she attempts
to create a different way of viewing
nursing phenomenon.
CHARACTERISTICS 2:-
 Problem solving is an activity that is
inherently logical in nature.

CHARACTERISTICS 3:-
 Framework seems to focus quite
heavily on nursing practice and
individuals. This somewhat limits the
ability to generalize although the
problem the problem solving approach
is readily generalizable to clients with
specific health needs and specific
nursing problems.

CHARACTERISTIC 4:-
 One of the most important questions
that arise when considering her work
is the role of client within the
framework.
 This question could generate
hypothesis for testing and thus
demonstrates the ability of Abdellah's
work to generate hypothesis for
testing.

CHARACTERSTIC 5:-
 The results of testing such hypothesis
would contribute to the general body
of nursing knowledge.
CHARACTERSTIC 6:-
 Abdellah’s problem solving approach
can easily be used by practitioners to
guide various activities with in their
practice.
 This is true when considering nursing
practice that deals with clients who
have specific needs and specific

CHARATERSTIC 7:-
 Although consistency with other
theories exist, many question remain
unanswered.

LIMITATIONS:-
 The major limitation of Abdellah theory
and the twenty one nursing problems
is their very strong centered
orientation
 With the orientation appropriate use
might be the organization of teaching
content for nursing students, the
evaluation of a students, performance
in the clinical area or both.
 But in terms of client care there is little
emphasis on what the client is to
achieve.

CONCLUSION:-
 Using Abdellah's concepts of health,
nursing problems and problem solving,
the theoretical statement of nursing that
can be derived is the use of the
problems related to health needs of
people. From this framework, 21 nursing
problems were developed.
 Abdellah’s theory provides a basis for
determining and organizing nursing care.
The problems also provide a basis for
organizing appropriate nursing
strategies.