Evelyn

Adam
EMERITUS PROFESSOR
FACULTY OF NURSING
 Biography
 Evelyn Adam's track record is impressive: 14-years-old nursing nurse, 23-years-old
university professor, member of an impressive number of committees and juries, author of
a book published in seven languages. Her 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.
Cont.
She expanded her work in 1991 second edition. Her classic paper titled simply “Modeles
Conceptuels” argues their importance in shaping a way of thinking and providing a framework
for practice. (Adam,1999
Evelyn Adam is a Canadian nursing theorist who applied the structure of a
conceptual model for nursing in her book, Être Infirmière in 1979 (To Be a
Nurse, 1980)
Adam believes that a theory is useful to more than one discipline, but that a
conceptual model for a discipline is useful only to that discipline (Modèles
conceptuels, 1991)
TEACHING CARE
In 1950, Evelyn Adam obtained her nursing diploma from Hôtel-Dieu in Kingston,
Ontario. She worked as a nursing nurse in various establishments in this province for
four years before coming to Quebec for a six-month professional development
internship at the Montreal Neurological Institute, which ended with a job offer. In order
to be able to address the seriously ill treated by the Institute in their mother tongue,
she enrolled in French lessons, a decision that would change the course of her career.
After being a nursing nurse for six years at the Montreal Neurological Institute, then
head nurse, she became a nursing nurse in Lausanne, Switzerland. Upon her return,
she accepted a similar position at 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.
Cont.
 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 was
granted 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 one of her professors,
Dorothy E. Johnson, who conveyed to her constant concern for clarifying the meaning
of "being a nurse".
CHOOSE A REFERENCE
SCHEME
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 for each subsequent edition, both in French and
in English. Over the years, her 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 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.
Cont.
 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 reference scheme helps to clarify this "something
else".
FOR A COMPLETE DESIGN OF THE DISCIPLINE

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 than ever be aware of their contribution, "without
however excluding interdisciplinarity," explains Evelyn 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
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, 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, and all the others, but I never
found the time to do it.
Cont.
 In demand from all sides, Ms. Adam has indeed had a very busy schedule
throughout her career. She was a nursing expert for a selection committee
and consultant for the establishment of a university program; she has
supervised a large number of graduate students; she coordinated a project
aimed at improving the 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 defined the role of the nurse in
various nursing research projects.
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.
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, confidently: “I really
enjoyed nursing and I really enjoyed teaching. The lectures I still give are an
extension of my career. "
Expertise

 Critical Theory
Nursing Discipline
 Nursing Assessment
 Nursing Practice
 Nursing Education
 Conceptual Model for Nursing
 6 main components of her
conceptual model
1.Goal of the profession: the end the member of the profession strives to achieve.

2.Beneficiary:A person or a group of people who the professional directs their activities like the client.

3.Role:This is the part that the professional plays. It is the societal function of the professional.

4.Source of Difficulty: The probable origin of the clients difficulty to which the professional is prepared to cope.

5.Intervention:The focus of centers of the professional’s attention, the moment they intervenes with a client.

6.Consequences:The results of the professional’s effort to attain the ideal and limited goal