Essay On Dorothea Oreem's Self Care Theory

In a line of many nursing theorists, Dorothea E. Orem has made a significant contribution to the definition and application of nursing. She was born on June 15, 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 265). Beginning in the 1930s, Orem earned her first diploma in Washington, D.C., while working at Providence Hospital School of Nursing. She would go on to earn a bachelors and masters of science degree in Nursing Education at The Catholic University of America (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 265). While working for the Indiana State Board of Health, her personal theory of nursing care was established and eventually published in her book, Nursing: Concepts of Practice, in 1971. Finally, in 1976 Georgetown University awarded her an

According to Alligood and Tomey in Nursing theorists and their work (2010), the self-care theory is defined as a mature individual’s ability to independently perform necessary actions conducive to managing their own optimal health and the health of their dependents (p. 269). Within this theory, self-care agency is a person’s competence in performing these necessary self-care activities, while self-care demands are the actions themselves that need to be met for health and prosperity (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 270-271). Orem identifies an individual’s ability to meet these demands as influenced by basic conditioning factors such as age, gender, and availability of resources. Therefore, the self-care deficit theory states that when an individual is lacking in ability or education to tend to their self-care demands, a nurse performs the necessary action (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 273-274). Nurses intervene using the nursing systems. This includes the wholly compensatory system, when a patient is solely dependent on the nurse’s care; partly compensatory, when the patient and nurse work together to provide care; and supportive-educative, when a nurse teaches the patient how to perform self-care (Alligood & Tomey, 2010, p. 273-274). Moreover, the self-care deficit theory defines a nurse as the intermediary between a

If there is a deficiency in their ability to be their own agent of care, they pursue healthcare (Shelly & Miller, p. 46). Additionally, in terms of environment, the book describes that the theory looks at how a person’s city, home, country, genetics, stressors, and chemicals enhance or limit their ability to provide self-care. According to the theory, health considers how a person’s mental, physical, or social well-being enables or keeps them from providing self-care (Shelly & Miller, 2006, p. 46). Lastly, as the book discusses, in terms of this theory, nursing develops interventions around helping persons become their own agents of