Dorothea Orem's Nursing Theory Analysis

Dorothea Orem was born on July 15, 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland. As a nursing theorist, she developed the Self-Care Nursing Theory, also known as the Orem Model of Nursing. According to Wayne (2014), Orem’s theory defined Nursing as “The act of assisting others in the provision and management of self-care to maintain or improve human functioning at home level of effectiveness.” Taylor (2015) states that self-care is a basic human need that must be met to maintain quality of life. When there is a self-care deficit, a person requires nursing actions and interventions.

Dorothea Orem was the youngest of 3, born to the parents of a construction worker and a homemaker. She received a diploma from Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Washington D.C. in 1934. She proceeded on to Catholic University of America to earn her bachelors and masters degree in nursing. After working for a few years, Orem focused in on teaching and administration. She worked as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Dean of the School of nursing at Catholic University of America.

The Self-Care theory Orem proposed has three basic ideas: theory of self-care, the self-care deficit, and theory of nursing systems. The theory of Self-Care represents the activities individuals do to maintain

their own health. The self-care deficit happens when the needs of self-care cannot be met due to age, health care system, or family system. When self-care deficit is identified by the nurse, he or she puts in place certain nursing systems to provide care.
A strength of the Self-Care theory developed by Orem includes that it is a clear advocator for the nursing process.

The nursing process helps a nurse determine which self-care needs are unmet by the patient and what roles the nurse needs to fill to meet those needs. It is important to know the self-care needs of your patients in order to present adequate nursing care. A limitation of the Self-Care theory is that the theory mainly focuses on the physical aspects of the patient. A nurse should not only include self-care, self-care deficits, and nursing systems to correct the self-care deficit, but should also include the patient’s emotional and psychological needs to give holistic patient-centered

care.
Orem published, Nursing: Concepts of Practice, in 1971. In this work, she outlines and proposes her Self-Care theory of nursing. This piece of work established her as a nursing theorist. Orem’s career did not stop here. She continued to write papers, go to workshops, and educate more nurses about her theory. The International Orem Society was then established to continue research on Orem’s theory. Later, she published multiple editions of her book. She continued on to publish the 6th edition of Nursing: Concepts of Practice in January of 2001. A few years later in 2007, Orem passed away in Savannah, Georgia. The contributions Dorothea Orem made give a comprehensive base to nursing practice. While nursing is dynamic and always changing, the self-care theory can always be of use throughout the nursing process.