Dorothea Orem Essay

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Dorothea Orem Dorothea Orem was born in 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her nursing diploma from the Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, D.C. in the early 1930’s. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1939 followed by her Master of Science in Nursing in 1945, both from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C. The Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory also known as the Orem Model of Nursing was developed sometime between 1959 and 2001. It is considered a grand nursing theory, meaning the theory covers a broad scope with general concepts that can be applied to all areas of nursing. The main logic of the Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory is that all patients want to care for themselves, and they seem to recover more quickly and holistically by performing their own self-care as much as possible. This theory is particularly used in rehabilitation in which patients are encouraged to be independent. There are three categories of self care requisites identified by Dorothea Orem. The first is universal self-care requisites, which are the basic needs all people have. These include things like food, water, and air. The second is developmental self-care requisites including maturational and situational. The third is health deviations which are the needs that arise based on the patient’s medical condition. If the patient can’t meet personal self-care requisites then a self-care deficit occurs. This is when the nurse will step in and develop a support modality which could include total compensation, partial compensation or education and support. One of the benefits of Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory is that it can be easily applied to a variety of nursing situations and patients. The generality of its principles and concepts make it easily adaptable to different settings, and nurses and patients can work

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