Her Assumptions

Her ASSUMPTIONS
by Group E's Joyce Lynn Opinga

Abdellah firmly believed in proper identification of patient’s needs. As such, she upheld that nurses should be fully equipped by formal education and proper training to effectively identify and address the patient's need. Furthermore, the renowned theorist also gave emphasis on continuous nursing education by keeping themselves abreast in the ever-changing health care delivery system. 

All these led her to the following assumptions (Wayne, 2014):

1. Relate to change and anticipated changes that affect nursing;
2. The need to appreciate the interconnectedness of social enterprises and social problems;
3. The impact of problems such as poverty, racism, pollution, education, and so forth on health and health care delivery;
4. Changing/updating nursing education;
5. Continuing education for professional nurses; and
6. Development of nursing leaders from underserved groups.

More importantly, her belief in patient-centered approach led her to formulate her widely-used 10 steps in identifying the patient’s problems, which are as follows:

1. Learn to know the patient.
2. Sort out relevant and significant data.
3. Make generalizations about available data in relation to similar nursing problems presented by other patients.
4. Identify the therapeutic plan.
5. Test generalizations with the patient and make additional generalizations.
6. Validate the patient’s conclusions about his nursing problems.
7. Continue to observe and evaluate the patient over a period of time to identify any attitudes and clues affecting his or her behavior.
8. Explore the patient and his or her family’s reactions to the therapeutic plan and involve them in the plan.
9. Identify how the nurses feel about the patient’s nursing problems.
10. Discuss and develop a comprehensive nursing care (Petiprin, 2016; Gil, 2014).

Reference List:

Petiprin, A. (2016). Faye Abdellah - nursing theorist. Retrieved from http://nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Faye-Abdellah.php

Wayne, Gil (29 September 2014). Faye Abdellah - 21 Nursing Problems Theory - Nurseslabs [Weblog]. Retrieved 23 August 2017, from https://nurseslabs.com/faye-g-abdellahs-21-nursing-problems-theory/