VIRGINIA HENDERSON

Virginia Avenel Henderson was born in Kansas City, Missouri on November 30, 1987. She was able to
earn her diploma in Nursing in 1921 and eventually, she started to teach Nursing at Norfolk Protestant Hospital
in Virginia. She was also able to become a part of Yale’s staff as a research associate.

In 1991, she was able to author her personal theory. Over time, she became a recipient of numerous
recognitions and her work was able to influence the nursing profession globally. She was a well-known nursing
educator and as well as a prolific author. At the age of 98, Henderson died in hospital care.

Her definition of nursing clearly delineated or was able to set out nursing from medicine in which she
said that: “The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those
activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had
the necessary strength, will, or knowledge. And to do this in such a way as to help him gain independence as
rapidly as possible”

In her theory called The Need Theory, she emphasized the importance of increasing the patient’s
independence so that the progress after hospitalization would not be delayed. Henderson describe the role of
the nurse as Substitutive, Supplementary, and Complementary with the goal of helping the person to
become independent as soon as possible.

She proposed 14 components that are required for an effective nursing care wherein 9 are
physiological, 2 are psychological aspects of communicating and learning, 1 is spiritual and moral, and the
other 2 are sociologically oriented to occupation and recreation.

First is the Person. In the theory, the patient is made up of biological, spiritual, and sociological
components. They have basic needs that are components of health and according to this, mind and body are
inseparable. Patients require nursing assistance in order to achieve health, independence, or a peaceful death.
Wholeness is also achieved by maintaining physiological and emotional balance.

Next is Health. Its definition is based on the individual’s ability to function independently in the 14 basic
human needs. Nurses need to stress the promotion of health and as well as the prevention and cure of
disease. In order to achieve health, the needed strength, will, and knowledge are important.
1 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS IN NURSING | GROUP 1
Next is Nursing. The goal of the nurse is to make the patient that lacks necessary functions on one or
more component become whole and independent again. Simply put, it serves to obtain holistic well-being.
Nurses must also carry out the therapeutic plan of the doctor and ensure the safety of the patient.

Lastly, we have the Environment. It should encompass all external conditions and influences that affect
life and development. Society expects nurses to act for individuals who are not able to function by themselves.
Settings enables the patients to learn unique patterns for living and the environment can act either positively or
negatively upon the patient.

FAYE ABDELLAH

Faye Abdellah, aside from being a nurse and a theorist, she was the 1 st woman to become a surgeon
general as a nurse. She is well-known for her theory which is the 21 Problems of Nursing Theory. In her
definition of Nursing, she stated that: “Nursing is based on an art and science that molds 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.”

Here is a diagram regarding Abdellah’s Theory and Nursing Influence. And here are the 21 Problems
that she was able to identify, which eventually became the foundation of nursing diagnoses. Her theory directly
relates to nursing care in all specialties and focuses on patient care which can be utilized to provide an outline
that encompasses all aspects of the patient’s needs. Now, let’s go over the metaparadigms.

First is the person. Abdellah classified the beneficiary or recipient of care as individuals. However, she
doesn’t set standard limits on the nature and essence of human beings. The 21 nursing problems relate with
biological, psychological, and social aspects of individuals and can be said to correspond to concept of
importance.

Next is health. In this theory, it is defined as the center and purpose of nursing service. Although
Abdellah does not give a definition of health, she speaks to a “total health needs” and a “healthy state of mind
and body” in her description of nursing as a comprehensive service.
 Next is environment. The idea of environment is addressed by Abdellah and is included in the “planning
for optimum health on local, state, national and international levels.” However, as she elaborates her ideas, the
apex (core) of nursing service is the individual.
Lastly, we have Nursing. Here, the concept of Nursing is generally grouped into 21 problem areas for
nurses to work out their judgment and for appropriate care. She considers nursing to be an all-inclusive service
that is based on the discipline of arts and science that serves individuals, sick or well, and cope with their
health needs.

Dorothea Orem

She’s the one who developed the Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory. She was born on July 15, 1914 in
Baltimore, Maryland and passed away on June 22, 2007 in her home in Savannah, GA, USA. Dorothea
graduated from the Providence Hospital of Nursing in Washington, D.C., with a diploma in Nursing in 1934 and
in 1939, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education from the Catholic University of America in
Washington, D.C.

Throughout her life, Orem received many honors and awards for her lifetime of achievements and
some of them are listed here. In 2005, she deposited all of her papers and audiovisual materials concerning
her life and work into the Dorothea E. Orem Collection and formally donated them in 2007. After her retirement
in 1984 and until she passed away, Orem continued her work as a consultant and lecturer and still continued to
work on her theory.

She has several years of experience as a nurse. Her early years were spent at Providence Hospital
and St. John’s Hospital. From 1934 through 1939, she worked in the operating room, was an adult medical-
surgical and pediatric staff nurse, an evening supervisor in the emergency room and even a biological
technician. She also did private duty nursing in both the hospital and in homes. She taught biological sciences
and nursing at the Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Detroit, Michigan, from 1939 through 1941.

Here are some of her other educational background and work experiences. It was during these years
that she began to develop her nursing theory and her definition of nursing practice. Orem first began thinking of
her theory as an answer to why people needed nursing. When she entered nursing in the 1930s, nursing was
an ill-defined profession. Her goal was to improve the quality of nursing and provide a framework for nursing
practice. Her book, Nursing: Concept of Practice, was published in 1971 and revised numerous times as she
2 continued to refine her theory. In 1973, she editedTHEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS
several texts including ConceptsINFormalization
NURSING | GROUP 1
in Nursing:
Process and Production.

1. Health is defined as degree of wellness or well-being that the client experiences.

2. The person is the recipient of nursing care.
o May include individuals, patients, groups, families and communities.
3. Environment is defined as the internal and external surrounds that affect the client.
4. Nursing refers to the attributes, characteristics, and actions of the nurse providing care on
behalf of or in conjunction with the client.

MYRA LEVINE

She is a nursing theorist known for her work, The Conservation Model. She was described as
creative, knowledgeable, opinionated, and global in terms of her concept of nursing. She developed her
interest in nursing due to her father’s Gastrointestinal (GI) problems. She obtained her diploma in Nursing in
Cook County School of Nursing in 1994 and her Master of Science in Nursing at Wayne State University in
1962.

The Conservation Model believes that nursing intervention is a conservation activity, with conservation
of energy as a fundamental concern, four conservation principles of nursing. It guides nurses to concentrate on
the importance and responses at the level of the person. Nurses are able to fulfill the theory’s purpose through
the conservation of energy, structure, and personal and social integrity.

So, what is the Conservation Model? Its core is to improve the physical and emotional wellbeing of a
person by considering the four domains of conservation that Levine set out. Nursing’s role in conservation is to
help the person with the process of “keeping together” the total person through the least amount of effort.
Levine (1989) proposed the following four principles of conservation.

According to Levine, “The conservation principles do not, of course, operate singly and in isolation from
each other. They are joined within the individual as a cascade of life events, churning and changing as the
environmental challenge is confronted and resolved in each individual’s unique way. The nurse as a caregiver
becomes part of that environment, bringing to every nursing opportunity his or her own cascading repertoire of
skill, knowledge, and compassion. It is a shared enterprise and each participant is rewarded.”
 Conservation of Energy
 Refers to balancing energy input and output to avoid excessive fatigue.
 It includes adequate rest, nutrition and exercise.
 Examples: Availability of adequate rest; Sustenance of adequate nutrition
Conservation of Structural Integrity
 Refers to maintaining/restoring the structure of body, preventing physical breakdown and promoting
healing.
 Examples: Assist patient in ROM exercise; Preservation of patient’s personal hygiene

Conservation of Personal Integrity

 Recognizes the individual as one who strives for recognition, respect, self-awareness, selfhood, and
self-determination.
 Example: Acknowledge and preserve patient’s space needs

Conservation of Social Integrity

 Exists when a patient is recognized as someone who resides within a family, a community, a religious
group, an ethnic group, a political system, and a nation.
 Example: Help the individual to preserve his or her place in a family, community, and society.

So, there are major concepts in this theory but let’s focus on the 4 concepts that make up the
Metaparadigm.
1. Environment, includes the Internal and External Environment and there are 3 Aspects which are:
o Operational, Perceptual, and Conceptual Environment.
2. Person is the unique individual in unity and integrity, feeling, believing, thinking, and whole.
3. Health is the pattern of adaptive change of the whole being.
4. Nursing is the human interaction relying on communication, rooted in the organic dependency of the
individual human being in his relationships with other human beings.

Here are some of the Assumptions About Individuals and here are some of the Assumptions About
Nursing. And the relationships between the concepts are stated here.

Analysis of the Conservation Model

3 THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS IN NURSING | GROUP 1
Although there are many concepts similar to that of other nursing theories, Levine’s concept of energy
conservation makes it unique in guiding nursing actions.

Borrowed concepts from Bates regarding Levine’s view with the environment were not translated into
how it affects the individual. The necessity of connecting incorporated concepts is crucial when trying to
develop a model for nursing so as to be applied to human care.