Self-Care Theory And Dorothea Orem's Self Care Deficit Theory

The purpose of this paper will be to explain the components of Dorothea Orem’s self-care deficit theory, the current significance of the theory, and the application of this particular nursing theory. A nursing theory is an explanation of a division of nursing that “describes, explains, predicts, or prescribes” that particular division. (Perry, Potter, Stockert, & Hall, 2013, p. 41). Orem developed her personal theory, the self-care deficit theory, to assess a patient’s ability to perform vital daily tasks and how it affected the patient’s. (Hartweg & Pickens, 2016). This theory is a grand theory, which means it can be used in almost all areas of nursing. There are five components or methods that compose this theory that nurses will practice when working with a patient who needs to reach the self-care deficit. (Edney, Jaime, & Young, 2016). It is used today and has been included in several studies that have proven it to be effective in shortening hospital visits when used on critically ill patients. (Hohdorf, 2010). This particular theory has helped advance nursing practice since Orem’s first publication.

Care and culture are the key constructs that make up the Culture Care Theory. This theory differed from other nurses’ work or mindset because nurse leaders relied heavily up on the four metaparadigm concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing to explain nursing (McFarland and Wehbe-Alamah, 2015). Leininger realized that those four metaparadigm concepts were to limited in its scope regarding nursing and culture and care ideologies. Interestingly, care and culture were excluded from the metaparadigm. “It is not logical to use nursing to explain nursing” (McFarland and Wehbe-Alamah, 2015). That is definitely a contradiction in terms and represents scholarly research

I chose to do a concept analysis on ‘Self-Care.’ The nursing theory that uses this concept is Orem’s theory of nursing. This theory is a grand theory and consists of three minor interrelated theories; self-care,

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 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.,

Three connecting theories developed by Dorothea Orem are the theory of self- care, the theory of self-care deficit and the theory of the nurse system (George, 2011). Self-care theory is offering an

Unlike other nursing theorists, Leininger did not put emphasis on basic concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing, which are usual nursing metaparadigms that most nursing theorists utilize. Leiningers theory instead, emphasized different metaparadigms. First, she considers nursing as both a discipline and a profession. The term ‘nursing’ according to her, cannot explain the phenomenon of nursing. Instead, ‘care’ has the greatest explanatory power to explain nursing. Leininger (1995) views ‘caring’ as the verb counterpart to the noun care and refers it to a feeling of compassion, interest and concern for people. When Leininger’s definition of care is compared to other transcultural scholars’ definitions, it appears that her view of care is wider than, for example, that of Orque et al. (1983), who depicted care as goal-oriented nursing activities, in which nurses recognize the patients’ ethnic and cultural features and integrate them into the nursing process as cited in (Giger, Davidhizar, Purnell, Harden, Phillips, & Strickland, 2007). Second, the nursing profession uses the term ‘person’ in a way that is limiting and binding, as the concept of

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.

Dorthea E. Orem is a well recognized and a very well educated nursing theorist. She had a lot of experience as a nurse, and this greatly helped her provide insight into her views of nursing practice, education, and science. “The question that directed Orem’s thinking was, “What condition exists in a person when judgments are made that a nurse(s) should be brought into the situation?”” (Berbiglia & Banfield, 2014) Her biggest focus was the Self- Care Deficit Nursing Theory.

Research in the professional practice of nursing was built upon a wide variety of theories that were presented by many well-known nursing theorists. Nursing theories that may be recognized today include Florence Nightingale’s Environmental Theory, Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory, Madeleine Leininger’s Cultural Care Theory, and Hildegard Peplau’s Interpersonal Process Theory. These individuals and their respective theories

Madeleine Leininger’s cultural care theory is one of the most influential modern day theories in nursing. Leininger describes her theory as one that is cultural sensitive that is tailored to address patients of different cultures, backgrounds, or origins. Leininger develops the cultural care theory due to the fact that she believes that nurses are caring for their patients as a one hat fits all, and not taking into consideration the patient 's background or their culture.

Orem’s Theory has helped lay the ground work for modern nursing. In 1971 her theory was first published and includes three related concepts: self-care, self-care deficit and nursing systems. Orem’s theory has given direction to many nurses, inspiring them to seek better ways to develop and express the knowledge base of nursing. The purpose of her theory is to help patients and their families maintain control of their health during their lifetime. The theory consists of three parts the nursing system, self-care and self-care deficit. Care is the primary focus and the ultimate goal is health restoration. Patients are allowed to have primary control over their health and letting healthcare providers educate, promote and encourage healthy

Core concepts are the basis for a theory or model; concepts help in the development of theories. Theorists have developed different models or theories but have common core concepts. This paper will identify the core concept of ‘the role of nursing,’ which two theorists, Dorothea Orem and Virginia Henderson both utilized. We will compare and analyze the concept definitions among both theorists, and discuss the practical use of Orem’s self care theory.

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.

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.