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Lydia Hall was a nursing theorist who developed the Care, Cure, Core model of nursing.
She was an advocate for chronically ill patients and worked to involve the community
in public health issues. She also was very supportive of nurses in all phases of
their careers.
Early Life and Education
Hall was born on September 21, 1906, in New York City as Lydia Eloise Williams. She
was the first born of Louis V. and Anna Ketterman Williams and was named after her
maternal grandmother. Her brother, Henry, was several years younger. When she was
very young, her family moved to York, Pennsylvania, where her father was a physician
in general practice.
After graduating from York Hospital School of Nursing in 1927 with a diploma in nursing,
Hall felt as if she needed more education. She entered Teacher's College at Columbia
University in New York and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in public health nursing
in 1932. After a number of years in clinical practice, she resumed her education and
received a master's degree in the teaching of natural life sciences from Columbia
University in 1942. Later, she pursued a doctorate and completed all of the requirements
except for the dissertation.
In 1945, she married Reginald A. Hall who was a native of England.
Career
Hall's nursing experience was practical as well as theoretical. Her early years as
a registered nurse were spent working for the Life Extension Institute of the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Company in Pennsylvania and New York where the main focus was on preventative
health. From 1935 to 1940, she worked for the New York Heart Association. In 1941,
she became a staff nurse with the Visiting Nurses Association of New York and stayed
there until 1947. While there, she was an advocate of community involvement in public
health issues. In 1950, she accepted a position as a professor at Teacher's College at
Columbia. She taught nursing students to function as medical consultants and was also
a research analyst in the field of cardiovascular disease.
Hall was always interested in rehabilitative nursing and the role that the professional
nurse played in the patient's recovery and welfare. Her Care, Cure, Core Theory was
developed through her interest and research in the field of rehabilitation of chronically
ill patients. As a result of her expertise in rehabilitation, Hall became involved in
the creation of the Loeb Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation at the Montefiore Medical
Center (MMC) in the Bronx, New York. The Solomon and Betty Loeb Memorial Home for
Convalescents had provided community services at Montefiore Hospital since 1905. In
1957, the Board of Trustees decided to expand the services and entered into a partnership
with the hospital to construct a new facility. Dr. Martin Cherkasky, director of the
hospital, contacted Hall to spearhead the undertaking, and she worked from 1957 to
1962 on all aspects of the project including construction and administration. As the
founder and the first director, she was adamant that nurses were in charge of everyday
operations. Others in the health team were secondary members.
The Loeb Center accepted its first patients on January 10, 1963. The center had strict
criteria for patient admission, and only patients who were past the critical phases of
their illnesses and could take part in their rehabilitation efforts were accepted.
Hall's belief that nursing created the therapeutic environment that led to a patient's
full recovery was the philosophy of the center. The nursing-centered care reduced
rehabilitation time and length of stay by up to one-half to one-third. The center
became a prime example of nursing-led care, and many centers in the United States
and Canada followed its principles. During her time there, Hall published over 20
articles about the Loeb Center.
Sadly, Lydia Hall died on February 27, 1969, at Queens Hospital in New York. Genrose
Alfano continued her work at the Loeb Center until the focus of the center was changed
to that of custodial care in 1985.
Awards
In 1967, Hall received the Teacher's College Nursing Education Alumni Association
(TCNEAA) Achievement in Nursing Practice Award and also was their Nursing Hall of
Fame inductee. In 1984, she was inducted into the American Nurses Association (ANA)
Hall of Fame.
Care, Cure, Core Theory
Hall's nursing theory is sometimes called the Three Cs of Lydia Hall. The three
components are represented by three separate but interconnected circles. The size
of each circle constantly varies and depends on the state of the patient. The core
is the patient, the cure refers to the medical and nursing interventions and the
care is the nurturing provided by nurses. She considered care exclusive to nursing,
and the other two components were shared with other health professionals. The theory
emphasizes the total patient rather than looking at just one part and depends on all
three components of the theory working together.
Publications related to Lydia Hall
- Hall, Lydia E. Core, Care and Cure Model, Nursing Outlook, 1963
- Henderson, C. Can Nursing Hasten Recovery?, American Journal of Nursing, 1964
- Nursing Theories: The Base for Professional Nursing Practice (6th Edition)
- Wiggins, L.R. Lydia Hall's Place in the Development of Theory in Nursing, Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 1980
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