Biography of Dorothea Orem

Dorothea Orem was born July 15, 1914 in Maryland. Orem was a decorated nurse. She was awarded her nursing diploma from Providence Hospital in Washington, D.C. In 1939 she graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education from Catholic University of America and in 1945 excelled again when she earned her Master of Science in Nursing. During her career she

Alice Magaw was born November 9, 1860, in Cashocton, Ohio. Besides her contribution to nursing, little is known about Alice’s personal life and what inspired her to enter the field on nursing. However, one can guess that she saw a demand for nurses and had a passion for caring for others. During this time period, nursing schools were incorporated into hospitals. Alice Magaw attended the Women’s Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago from 1887 to1889, around the time that nursing began to transform from a lower class occupation to a respectable profession. After graduation Alice worked as a private duty nurse in Chicago. In 1893, Alice began her work under Dr. William J. and Charles H.

Dorothea Lynde Dix was born on April 4, 1802, in Hampden, Maine (1). She grew up in a religious home with her two siblings and her mother, Mary Bigelow Dix and her father, Joseph Dix. With her father being a distributor of religious tracts, Dix had to help stich and paste them together. She did not enjoy this chore. At the age of 12, Dix left her home and moved in with her aunt. She left to escape from an emotionally absent mother and an abusive father (2). Dorothea Dix had a hard childhood and became sensitive to others hardships due to the abuse of her father. After leaving, “She began teaching school at age 14. In 1819, she returned to Boston and founded the Dix Mansion, a school for girls, along with a charity school that poor girls could attend for free. She began writing textbooks, with her most famous, Conversations on Common Things, published in 1824 (1).” She enjoyed teaching and was accustomed to it due to having to watch her siblings during her parents “episodes”. Dorothea Dix suffered

Orem and Roy have the different attitude toward the concept of nursing. Orem sees nursing as an intervention to meet the daily needs for self-care and medical-care patients need ("Dorothea Orem 's Self," 2011.)

Dorothea Dix was a woman who stood for the treatment and housing conditions of prisoners and the mentally ill.She observed and documented what she had seen and experienced. Her documentation changed her audiences minds and started the reform.

Dorothea Puente was not always a Puente. She was born as Dorothea Helen Gray in Redlands, California on January 9, 1929. Trudy Mae Yates, her mother, and Jesse James Gray, her father, according to Dorothea Puente, were alcoholics and abused her. Her father was a cotton-picker, and Puente claimed that her mother was a prostitute. However, how accurate is this information is debatable since Puente has been proven as a compulsive liar. She has lied about her life since she was young so as to make her seem more interesting to others and gain attention. When she was eight years old, her father died from tuberculosis in 1937. Her mother died a year later from a motorcycle accident in 1938. Left as an orphan at a very young age, she was sent to an

Imogene King was born in 1921in Iowa. Growing up, she dreamed of being a teacher but began nursing school to escape her small town life. She graduated with a diploma in nursing in 1945, then three years later earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education and worked as medical-surgical instructor and an assistant director at St. John’s School of Nursing until 1958, fulfilling her lifelong dream of being a teacher wither nursing career. She went on to earn a Master of Science in Nursing in 1957 and a doctorate in education in 1961 (Imogene King, 2011). King then became an associate professor at Loyola University in Chicago and formed a master’s degree program that was based on her nursing concepts, which later became the framework for her theory.

This focus is adapted to primarily prepare the ADN student for more day to day nursing activities. In 1952, Mildred Montag, in response to the nursing shortage, designed a program to counter the college level nursing programs. An associate degree was the end result. (Haase, 2006, p. 1)

Dorothea Lynde Dix was salient to the development of both the Reform and Civil War Eras that she lived during, and to the overall United States. Moreover, Dorothea Dix had minor, but crucial, contributions to the education of children during her early years, which would help her effort in creating different perspective and establishing institutions for the mentally ill. Her onerous efforts even required her to plead to the State Legislative body, which was essential in achieving her goals for the mentally ill. In addition, Dix contributed to the Civil War when she was appointed superintendent of nurses for the Union army. Dix’s action would leave a permanent mark to the character of the United States when she helped form institutions for the mentally ill and wrote the “Bill of the Benefit of the Indigent Insane.”

Through out the Great Depression there were many photographers, but one of the best was Dorothea Lange. Lange was born on the 25th of May in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey as the first child of Joan and Henry Nutzhorn. She decided to become a photographer at the age of 18. She studied photography at Columbia University in New York. At the age of 20 she began to travel the world. Later in life she settled down in San Francisco, California, where she met her first husband, artist Maynard Dixon. She had had to children Daniel (1925) and John (1928). She died on the 11th of October in 1916. Even Though some people believe Dorothea Lange was not a great photographer, Dorothea was because she caused great inspiration of those going through the hard

In the seventy four week, I privately confront resister Louise Orysh to ask his opinion about new products and why she doesn’t adopt it, to know the weakness of the new product and how to reform. Then I restructured organization the following week.

In 1891, at the age of 22, Lillian Wald decided to attend nursing school. She moved to New York and acquired her education at New York Hospital’s Training School

Nightingale had the power and was in the right position to establish modern nursing (Stein 1998). Nightingale said, “Let us never consider ourselves as finished nurses…we must be learning all our lives”. In the years of 1860 through 1899 the Unites States laid the groundwork for nursing. Following England’s format, the school of nursing would remain separate from the hospital, so that the educational needs would be kept separate from patient needs. The first doctoral program for nursing was instituted at the university of Pittsburg in 1954 (Stein 1998). In today’s society, the education and learning of nurses consist of programs, offerings, and independent studies in order to broaden a nurse’s ability (Stein 1998). The education required to become a register nurse today is, a Bachelor in science degree along with a nursing degree.

Dorothea Orem created the self-care theory in 1959 and continued to build upon her theory until 2001. The purpose of Orem’s theory was to define nursing, discuss the relationship among the nurse and the patient, and to promote a clear understanding of the scope of nursing (Taylor, Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing, 2006). Today, Orem’s theory is widely known and is utilized in nursing curriculum, as well as continuing education topics for healthcare providers.

Like any scientific discipline, the nursing profession has evolved over time. Nurses, once regarded as housemaids and lower class citizens, now hold positions of authority and stature in our modern society. These changes in the profession are attributed to the many nurse theorists who devoted their lives to the improvement of patient care. Through their theoretical advancements, the public perception of nursing has gone from dismissive to reverential. Today, our culture considers the nursing profession to be one of the most rewarding and respected career paths an individual can pursue. Through a review of one such patient theorist, Dorothea Orem, one can witness this change in the perception of the nursing profession. As a first semester student in a professional nursing course of study, Orem has already influenced my personal nursing philosophy.