Summary

Educational Background:

• Diploma graduate, New York Medical College - 1947

• B.S. in Public Health Nursing, St. John's University, Brooklyn - 1951

• M.A. in mental health consultation, Columbia University, New York - 1954

Professional background:

• Staff nurse, varied specialties

• Supervisor

• Research associate at Yale University

• Clinical nurse consultant in mental health, McLean Hospital, Massachusetts

• Various positions at Boston University since 1972

Orlando is known for her ideas about the nursing process.  She published The Dynamic nurse-patient relationship: Function, process and principles, an important contribution to ideas on nurse-patient communication, in 1961; the work was reprinted in 1990. This book resulted from a study she conducted at Yale on integrating mental health concepts into nursing and was derived inductively from the field notes for this study. 

She then published The discipline and teaching of nursing process in 1972. She identifies nursing as "concerned with providing direct assistance to individuals in whatever setting they are found  for he purpose of avoiding, relieving, diminishing, or curing the individual's sense of helplessness" (Orlando, 1972, p. 22).  She feels that nurses practice independently on behalf of their patients.

The purpose of the nursing process (alternately called deliberative nursing process or nursing process discipline by Orlando) is to meet a patient's immediate needs.  The nursing process begins with a patient behavior, either verbal or nonverbal, that indicates a need for help. This behavior results in a reaction from the nurse in which the nurse perceives a need, applies thought to the need, and produces a feeling about the need, such as concern or anxiety. The nurse then confirms her perception, thought, and feeling with the patient. Note that this description of the nursing process differs from subsequent uses of the term, in which the nursing process includes assessment, diagnosis, planning, intervention, and evaluation. 

Reference:

Orlando, I. J. (1972). The discipline and teaching of nursing process: An evaluative study. New York: G. P. Putnam.

Sources:

George, J.B.  (2002). Nursing Process Discipline: Ida Jean Orlando.  In George, J.B. (Ed.). Nursing Theories: the Base for professional nursing practice (5th Ed.).  Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, pp. 189-208.

Schmieding, N.J. (2002). Ida Jean Orlando (Pelletier): Nursing Process Theory. In Tomey, A.M., & Alligood, M.R..  Nurse theorists and their work (5th Ed.). St. Louis: Mosby, pp. 399-417.

Summary by Becky Sisk, PhD, RN

Students -- As with all of the articles on NurseScribe, consider this to be a secondary source and use primary sources to write a paper or make a presentation.

Websites

• Ida Jean Orlando's Nursing Process Theory  - From the University of Rhode Island

Books Available from Amazon.com

Nursing Theories and Nursing Practice

by Parker (Ed.), 200

Nursing theories: The case for professional nursing practice (5th Ed.)

by George (Ed.), 2002

Nursing theorists and their work (5th Ed.)

by Tomey & Alligood (Eds.), 2002