Foundations of Nursing Practice: Dorothea Orem's Self-care Theory

Applying theories to nursing practice has many advantages for nurses and their profession.Dorothea Orem's self care theory allows nurses to organize principles that help them evaluate patient care as well as improve nursing interventions based on the evaluation of findings and practices.

Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory developed as a result of her goal to improve the quality of nursing in hospitals in her state. I chose Dorothea’s self-care theory because I feel as if the nursing industry is always trying to improve their processes. We use quality improvement today in order to use statistics, surveys, and improve our processes. This theory is simple, yet applies to a wide variety of patients, which is another reason why I chose this theory. As a nurse we care for many different patients, with different genders, cultures, and ages. This theory can be used by nurses to guide and improve our practices, but it must be consistent with other validated theories, which is very similar to the quality improvement we use today.

Dorothea Orem identifies three classes to meet the self-care requirements. It reminds me of some of the scales we use as nurses to assess our patients. These three classes include, compensatory system, partly compensatory system, and supportive-educative system. This theory also includes two categories of technologies, social/interpersonal, and regulatory technologies. This theory is important even today because it gives an approach to the nursing process, and provides a way to determine self-care deficits of the patients we care for.

Philosophical Underpinnings and Application of Dorothea Orem's Self Care Theory

The philosophical underpinnings of the Dorothea Orem Self Care Theory is that all patients want to care for themselves. This is extremely important as your role as a nurse. Once a patient is discharged from your care, they should not only know how to care for themselves, but also want to care for themselves. This can prevent many health issues. The philosophy of this theory also consists of patients being able to recover quicker, and in a more holistic way by performing their own self-care. The nursing industry now a days has shifted to be more holistic, which makes this theory even more relevant today. Patients knowing how to care for themselves is also known as a rehabilitation technique. Patients are encouraged to be independent as much as they can, this helps with autonomy as well.

The assumptions of Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Theory are that humans engage in constant communication, and connect to their environment. Another assumption is that humans discover, develop, and transmit to identify needs for themselves and others. The major concepts of Orem’s theory include the same as mentioned above, they are just defined differently. Humans are defined as men, women, and children cared for as units, and are the object of nurse’s care. The environmental concept has physical, chemical and biological factors which include family, culture, and community. This is very important as a nurse being that nurse’s care for patients from different cultures, and communities. The concept of health is being structurally and functionally whole. The nursing concept is an art through which nurses give care to persons with disabilities which allows the patient to meet their needs for self-care.

The clinical use of nursing models and theories helps develop nursing knowledge. Orem’s self-care deficit theory in the clinical field focuses on the specific scenarios needing the attention of nurses. Five ways it helps nurses in the clinical aspect is acting for and doing for our patients, guiding our patients, supporting our patients, providing an environment, and promoting personal development for our patients, and lastly teaching others. Nurse’s use Orem’s theory by determine whether a patient is facing a self-care deficit. First, the nurse gathers health history about the patient. Next, the nurse strategizes how to help the patient with their deficit. Next, the nurse works to help the patient meet their self-care needs.

Personal Application and Conclusion 

I use Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory in my practice as a pediatric nurse by allowing children to practice autonomy and educating them how to care for themselves as much as they can. For example, teaching them how to brush their teeth after ENT procedures. I also educate he parents on how to properly care for them after surgery, including when and how to bathe them, when to give medications, etc.

Orem’s theory on the other hand is simple, but it applies to a wide variety of patients, which makes it a great theory to use as a nurse. It explains the terms self-care, and self-care deficit which key to nurses, as well as students on their journey in nursing school. This theory is significant in that all patients want to care for themselves. This allows them to be educated, and to recover in a rehabilitative way.

References

• Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory. (2017). Retrieved from https://nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/orem-self-care-deficit-theory.php.
• Dorothea E. Orem. (2019). Retrieved from https://nursing-theory.org/nursing-theorists/Dorothea-E-Orem.php.
• Gonzalo, A. (2014, August 24). Dorothea Orem: Self Care Deficit Theory Study Guide. Retrieved from https://nurseslabs.com/dorothea-orems-self-care-theory/#Assumptions-of-the-Self-Care-Deficit-Theory.
• The Pivotal Role of Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory. (2019, August 29). Retrieved from https://online.regiscollege.edu/blog/the-pivotal-role-of-orems-self-care-deficit-theory/.