FAYE GLENN ABDELLAH

21 Nursing Problems
➢Born in March 13, 1919 in New York City.
➢Finished her Basic Nursing Education as Magna Cum
Laude in 1942 from Fitkin Memorial Hospital School of
Nursing in Neptune, New Jersy.
➢Obtained her BSN degree in 1945, Master of Arts in 1947,
Doctor of Education in 1955 at Teachers College of Columbia
University.
➢The first nurse and first woman to serve as DEPUTY
SURGEON GENERAL of the US.
• Inducted into the US National Women’s Hall of Fame in
2000 due to her contribution in the field of
Education and Nursing Research.
➢A Fellow and beneficiary of both National and
International Awards.
➢As retiree, she has written and discussed more than
100 publications related to nursing care, education
for advanced practice in nursing or nursing
research.
• In 1960, she was profoundly influenced by the desire to
promote client-centered all inclusive nursing care, thus
making the idea of nursing as a true humanitarian service
to individuals, families and to society.
• Nursing is grounded as an art and science that molds the
attitude, intellectual capabilities, technical know how of the
individual nurse into the desire and capacity to assist
people, sick or well, and to deal with their needs.
• Nursing as a complete humanitarian service, it includes the
following:
✓Be acquainted with the nursing problems of the pt.
✓Choose the definite courses of action to make in the
scope of relevant nursing principles.
✓Make available continuous care of the individual’s entire health
needs.
✓Give continuous care to relieve pain and discomfort and provide
immediate security for the individual.
✓Regulate the total nursing care plan to meet the patient’s tailored
needs.
✓Serving the individual to become more self determining in
achieving maintaining a heathy state of mind and body.
✓Informing nursing personnel, family and support system to
provide the individual act for oneself within perceived
limitations.
✓Facilitate the individual to adapt to limits and emotional
problems.
✓Team up with different allied health professions in working
with the diagram for optimum health on local, state, national
and international levels.
✓Engaging in non-stop evaluation and research to develop
nursing techniques and to create new techniques to serve the
health needs of different people.
❖Provision of continuous care of the individual’s total health
needs was eliminated in 1973. The words continuous and
total are impossible to provide.
Metaparadigm in Nursing:
PERSON:
❖Classifies the beneficiary of care as individuals.
❖Does not set standard limits on the nature and essence
of human beings.
❖The 21 nursing problems relate with biological,
psychological and social aspects of individuals.
HEALTH: The center and purpose of nursing services.
❖Healthy state of mind and body. She speaks to a “Total
health needs.
Environment:
❖ The idea of environment is included in “planning
for optimum health on local, state, national, and
international levels” She elaborates her idea, the
apex of nursing service is the individual.
NURSING:
❖Is an all inclusive service that is based on the
disciplines of art and science that serves individuals,
sick or well, cope with their health needs.
 Abdellah’s work utilizes three chief concepts:
1.Health Needs are seen as problems, which
maybe:

a. Overt – which is obvious or can be seen

condition.
b. Covert – which is an unseen or masked one.
- sometime attributed with emotions and
relationship in nature and often seen incorrectly.
- in many instances covert problems may solve
the overt problems as well.
2. Nursing Problems is more in tune with “ nursing
goals” and “ nursing functions”. Therefore the
focus of the theory is more nursing-centered than
client-centered. She re-focused the role of the
nurse from the disease orientation to nursing
orientation, but maintaining the client as the
main concern.
- all medicines and nursing practices help the
client, but the nurse must know where she can
excel well, and that is, on caring for the over all
needs of the patient.
 3. PROBLEM SOLVING:
=medium for nursing problems as the client is geared in the direction
of health, which is the outcome.
= this process includes:
a. Identifying the problem
b. Selecting relevant data
c. Devising hypotheses
d. Testing hypotheses through the assortment of data
e. Revising hypotheses when necessary on the basis of
conclusion obtained from the data.
 TYPOLOGY OF TWENTY ONE NURSING PROBLEMS
1. To maintain good hygiene and physical comfort.
2. To promote optimal activity, exercise, rest, sleep.
3. To promote safely through prevention of accidents, injury
or others.
4. To maintain good body mechanics, prevent and 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 and
electrolytes balance.
9. To recognize the physiologic responses of the body to
disease conditions – pathological, physiological, and
compensatory.
10. To facilitate the maintenance of sensory function.
11. To facilitate the maintenance of regulatory
mechanism and function.
12. To identify and accept positive and negative
expression, 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 productive IPRs.
16. To create or maintain a therapeutic environment.
 17. To facilitate progress toward achievement and
personal spiritual goals.
18. To facilitate awareness of self as an individual with varying
physical, emotional, and developmental needs.
19. To accept the optimum possible goals in the light of
limitations, physical and emotional.
20. To used 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.
❖The 21 Nursing Problems as an extensive collection would give
confidence to the simplification of principles and a result, would
:
• Guide care.
• Promote the development of the nurse’s judgmental ability.
• Increase ability to use the theory in clinical practice.
• Strengthen the usefulness of the nursing problems

❖This 21 Nursing Problems is one of the forerunners of the

Nursing Diagnosis as compiled ny the North American Nursing
Diagnosis Association { NANDA }