Dorothea Orem Selfcare Deficit Theory

Dorthea E. Orem’s self-care model emphasizes both a patient 's ability and responsibility to care for themselves. Self-care as defined by Orem as “the practice of activities that individuals initiate and perform on their own behalf to maintain life, health, and well-being” (Catalano, 2015, p. 58). Since individuals function at varying levels, Orem has identified three levels of nursing care: wholly compensated care, partially compensated care, and supportive developmental care. This theories goal is to help each individual reach his or her maximum level of function and to take responsibility for his or her health (Catalano, 2015). Self-reliance is also core value in my own personal life. I believe that a person who is capable of performing any part of their own self-care should be encouraged to do so because it will help them become independent, improve their psychosocial status, and promote self worth at a time when they rely so heavily on other people for their care. Orem’s theory matches my own belief of the importance of independence and self-reliance because the main goal is to help patients become as self-reliant as possible in their healthcare. This theory emphasizes the important role of education in nursing in order to enable them to take control of their own health. Because of health deficits, some individuals may require more assistance from care providers. However, even these patients should be encouraged and allowed to do whatever they are able to do for

Dorothea Orem’s philosophy in nursing is consistent with my own personal philosophy. Knowing your own capability and limits predicts almost always the final result. One must

Dorothea Orem’s theory accepts and describes the premise of self-directed personal care (Alligood et al., 2010). Orem’s theory also explains and predicts when the nurse will be needed once the illness has challenged an individual's functional capacity. The purpose of the theory is to focus on individual’s being able to care for themselves on their own, identify when nurses are needed to help individuals progress to better health. Besides, self-health care is put in place to acknowledge that nurses can aid individuals to get back to their functional baseline abilities on time. (Alligood et al.,

The theory focuses on the ability of a person to meet his or her own needs. Developed in the year 1970, Orem’s theory focused on the three various concepts, namely self-care, self-care deficit, and the nursing system. Self-care is a group of activities or processes that a person performs to maintain health, life, and wellbeing (Orem, 2001). For instance, self-care is being demonstrated when a chronic heart failure patient checks his or her weight daily, takes prescribes medications, and avoids salty foods. Self-care deficit happens when an individual is not able to provide effective self-care (Orem, 2011). Nurses are able to assist patients in this state by educating them with their disease condition and treatment compliance. A nursing

Nursing theories play an integral role in guiding practice, education, and research. Many different theoretical perspectives are maintained in the field of nursing due to the diversity of the field, no single theory is able to account for all nursing knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast two nursing theories that have produced a profound impact on nursing practice. The theories being compared are Dorothea Orem’s Self Care Deficit Nursing Theory (SCDNT) and Sister Callista Roy’s Adaptation Model (RAM). Both theorists have profoundly influenced nursing science, research, practice, and education. Similarly, both of these theories fall into the category of Grand nursing theories which are the most complex theory level and explain broad areas of the discipline, as well as being the broadest in scope (McEwen & Wills, 2014).

The nursing process does not merely treat the patient as a physical body, but rather treats the patient holistically. The central philosophy of Dorothea Orem's self-care deficit nursing theory "is that all patients want to care for themselves, and they are able to recover more quickly and holistically by performing their own self-care as much as they're able" (Dorothea Orem, 2012, Nursing Theory). However, although self-care may be the core of Orem's theory, the decision to engage in self-care must be facilitated by the patient's social and physical environment, of which the family can play a critical role in shaping.

Dorothea Orem is known as one of the foremost nursing theorists. She is credited with the development of a nursing grand theory, the self-care deficit nursing theory (SCDNT). The beginning of her career can be traced back to Washington, D.C. in the mid 1930’s. Though she was a Baltimore, Maryland native, Orem pursued her nursing education at Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., graduating with baccalaureate and Master’s degrees in 1939 and 1945 respectively. Following her education, Orem held many job positions across multiple nursing disciplines, including working as a private nurse, nurse educator, administrator, director, and private contractor (McEwen & Wills, 2011).

Dorothea E. Orem is a nurse from the United States who greatly contributed to nursing theory in the modern medical world. Her newly established theory was known as the Orem Model of nursing or the self-care deficit nursing theory. The Orem Model of nursing emphasizes the importance of self-care as a basic human need and how self-care can be provided or managed to allow patients to recover more effectively.

Dorothea Orem was born in1914 in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her nursing diploma from the Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, D.C., in 1930, before she went on to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., in 1939 and 1945 respectively. Orem occupied numerous high profile nursing positions during her lifetime. She was director of nursing in various institutions and was a member of group of nursing theorists who formulated the framework for North American Nursing Diagnosis Association. She proposed Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing, which is made up of

Dorothea Orem’s self-care nursing philosophy encourages patient autonomy and gives patients a voice. Consequently, it increases patient responsibility and participation in their care. It provides nurses with a solid foundation to give patients’ self-sufficiency and control in caring for themselves. The self-care model is achieved when patients transform from dependent, unreceptive patients to active, engaged

Orem focuses on nursing as a deliberate human action and notes that all individuals can benefit from nursing when they have health-derived or health-related limitations for engaging in self-care or the care of dependent others (Gunther, 2016). The nurse chooses deliberate actions from nursing systems to bring about desirable conditions in persons. The goal of nursing is to move a patient toward responsible self care or to meet existing healthcare needs of those who have health care deficits (Gunther, 2016). Orem expects people to be responsible for themselves and to seek help when they cannot maintain therapeutic self-care or dependent-care (Fawcett, 2003).

Orem’s theory of self care deficit specifies when nursing is needed. “Nursing is required when an adult (or in the case of a dependent, the parent) is incapable or limited in the provision of continuous effective self care” (Current Nursing, 2010, para. 16). Orem’s created five methods of helping; which are acting for and doing for others, guiding others, supporting one another, providing an environment that promotes personal development, and teaching one another.

Dorothea Orem's self-care deficit theory was born while Dorothea Orem (1917-2007) was working in the Department of Health Education and Welfare (HEW) as a curriculum consultant. At this time in the history of the profession, nursing was just emerging as a unique academic discipline. Orem's theory was designed to answer the fundamental question: What is nursing? Orem defined nursing as a way of realizing every patient's desire to engage in self-care in a manner to "sustain life and health, recover from disease or injury and cope" with the consequences of major health events and daily life (El-Kader n.d.). Major assumptions of the theory include that "people should be self-reliant and responsible for their own care and others in their family needing care" (Dorothea Orem's self-care deficit theory, 2012, Current Nursing). Fundamentally, nursing and the nursing process is designed to enhance self-care and to address deficits in self-care.

Orem’s Self-Care Theory lays the foundation to measure self-care maintenance, management, and confidence. The framework of Orem’s theory contributes an optimistic patient view to their own personal healthcare and the goal of nurses, and the independent function of their patients. The identification of nursing as a science and an art are identified as well as its boundaries, and serve as unique contributions to nursing. The research that Orem completed was designed to measure self-care deficits and the quality of life to help determine the correlation between both (Seed & Torkelson, 2012).

Nursing Science continued to transform in the 70’s.Dorothea Orem was one of the most prominent nursing personalities that thrived in improving the standards of nursing through self-care deficit theory in 1971. The main objective of care is the self and thus catering every needs that revolve around it to perform self-care. Orem’s work had become so significant today that her Assessment for Care Evaluation method is the standard for evaluating health conditions.