Ernestine Wiedenbach

Ernestine Wiedenbach (August 18, 1900 in Hamburg, Germany – March 8, 1998) was a nursing theorist.

Her family emigrated to New York in 1909, where she later received a B.A. from Wellesley College in 1922, an R.N. from Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in 1925, an M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1934, and a certificate in nurse-midwifery from the Maternity Center Association School for Nurse-Midwives in New York in 1946.

Wiedenbach taught there until 1951, and in 1952, joined the Yale University faculty as an instructor in maternity nursing.

She was named an assistant professor of obstetric nursing in 1954 and an associate professor in 1956 when the Yale School of Nursing established a master's degree program under which she directed the major in maternal and newborn health nursing.

Wiedenbach's books are used widely in nursing education.

She retired in 1966.

Wiedenbach's theory is outlined below:

1. Prescriptive theory: This is a situation-producing theory that directs actions toward an explicit goal.

The prescriptive theory has three factors:

There are three components for nursing philosophy:

The prescription:

Actions appropriate to implement a plan to carry out the actions following the central purpose.

Actions may be voluntary (intended response), or involuntary (unintended response).

There are three voluntary actions:

The realities:

After the nurse determines the central purpose and has developed the prescription she considers the realities.

There are five realities.

The agent has four basic responsibilities:

2. Wiedenbach’s conceptualization of nursing practice and process: It states that nursing practice is an art, in which the nursing action is based on the principles of helping.

It consists of four types of actions:

The nursing practice has three components:

Clinical nursing has four components: