MAJOR CONCEPTS

ASSUMPTIONS

The main assumptions of Dorothea Orem's Self-Care Deficit Theory are: (1) People should be self-reliant and responsible for their care along with the care of others in their family. (2) Individuals make up people. (3) Nursing is a form of action and interaction between two or more individuals. (4) Successfully meeting universal and development self-care requisites essential for primary care illness prevention. (5) Promoting self-care behaviors requires a person's knowledge of potential health issues. (6) Behaviors learned within a sociocultural context, which includes self-care and dependent care.

SELF-CARE DEFICIT THEORY

Also known as Orem Model of Nursing. It is a grand nursing theory developed between 1959-2001. In which Dorothea Orem characterized nursing as “The act of assisting others in the provision and management of self-care to maintain/improve human functioning at home level of effectiveness.”

MAJOR CONCEPTS

I. SELF-CARE REQUISITES are actions directed toward the provision of self-care.

1. Universal Self-Care Requisites corresponds with life processes and the maintenance of the human structure and functioning integrity.

2. Developmental Self-Care Requisites - “Either specialized expressions of universal self-care requisites that have been particularized for developmental processes or they are new requisites derived from a condition or associated with an event.”

3. Health Deviation Self-Care Requisites - Required in conditions of illness, injury, or disease. 

II. SELF-CARE

• Self-care Demand refers to movements taken to deal with particular deficiencies recognized in a patient. The totality of self-care actions that must be performed over a period of time to meet self-care needs using valid methods and a series of related operations and actions.

• Self-care Agency is the human ability, “the ability for engaging in self-care,” conditioned by age, developmental state, life experience, socio-cultural orientation, health, and available resources.

• THEORY OF SELF-CARE - Individuals initiate and perform activities on their own behalf to maintain life, health, and well-being. (This includes showering, eating, and moving.)

• THEORY OF SELF-CARE DEFICIT - it determines when nursing is required. When an adult (or, in the case of a dependent, the parent or guardian) is incapable or limited in providing continuous effective self-care, nursing is required.

5 Methods of Helping: 
1.  Acting for and doing for others; 

2.  Guiding other 

3. Supporting another 

4. Providing an environment promoting personal development in relation to meet future        demands 

5. Teaching another.

III. NURSING SYSTEM

The Theory of Nursing System is the result of a series of interactions between two individuals: a legitimate nurse and a legitimate client. When the client's therapeutic self-care demands exceed the available self-care agencies, this system is activated and care is delivered. It is classified into three to meet the self-care requisites:  First, the wholly compensatory system wherein the nurse is socially dependent on others for their continued existence and well-being. Second, the partly compensatory system where both nurse and perform care measures or other actions involving manipulative tasks. Third, the supportive-educative system wherein the person can perform or can and should learn to perform required measures of externally or internally oriented therapeutic self-care but cannot do so without assistance.

NURSING PROCESS

Using Orem's method, it is possible to identify self-care deficits and then specify the duties of the patient or nurse in order to address the needs for self-care. As the technical part of the nursing process, the steps in the approach are viewed as such. According to Orem, the technological aspect must be coordinated with interpersonal and social pressures within nursing situations.

The nursing process in this theory has three parts. First is an assessment, where data is collected to identify issues or concerns that need to be addressed. The next step is diagnosis and the creation of a care plan. The third and final step in the nursing process is implementation and evaluation.