NURSING THEORIST
DOROTHEA E. OREM
• PRESENTED BY
Al’a Tabanjah
Haneen Faqeeh
Shouroq Taha
Yusif Faqeeh
Mohammad Hmidan
Dorothea Orem
• Dorothea E. Orem was born in 1914 in Baltimore, Maryland.
• In the early 1930s, she earned her nursing diploma from the
Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, D.C.
• She went on to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1939
and her Master’s of Science in Nursing in 1945, both from the
Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
• Dorothea Orem died on June 22, 2007.
Dorothea Orem
One of the works written by Dorothea Orem is:
1. Nursing: Concepts of Practice
2. Dorothea Orem: Self-Care Deficit Theory (Notes on Nursing
Theories
Orem’s Definition of Nursing
1. Nursing is the provision of self-care which is
therapeutic in sustaining life and health, in
recovering from disease or injury, or coping with
their effects.
2. Nursing is a service to people, not a derivative
of medicine.
3. Nursing promotes the goal of patient self-care.
Orem’s Nursing Process
• Consists of 3 steps
Step 1 determine why a patient needs care
Step 2 design a nursing system plan the
delivery of care
Step 3 management of nursing systems - planning,
initiating, controlling nursing actions
Orem’s General Theory of Nursing
• Consists of three related theories collectively
referred to as Orem’s General Theory of
Nursing
1. Self-care Theory 3 types of self-care requisites
(needs) or categories
2. Self-care Deficit Theory 5 Methods of Assistance
3. Nursing Systems Theory
Orem’s Self-care Theory
In 1957 while working for the US Department of Health, Education and
Welfare as curriculum consultant, Dorothea attempted to plan a nursing
curriculum for licensed practical nurses.
She was searching for a pragmatic framework to organize nursing
knowledge. Her focus was on the questions “What is nursing?” and
“When do people need nursing care?” and from this
she theorized that people need nursing when they are unable to care for
themselves.
Orem’s Self-care Theory
In 1971, she presented the Self- Care Deficit Theory of Nursing (S-
CDTN) in the book Nursing Concepts of Practice
She incorporates the medical model rather than rejects it, centers on the
individual, is problem oriented, and is easily adaptable in varied clinical
situations.
Orem’s Self-care Theory
• Based on the concepts of
1. SELF-CARE
2. SELF-CARE AGENCY
3. SELF-CARE REQUISITES
4. THERAPEUTIC SELF-CARE DEMAND
Self-care Definition
Self-care comprises those activities performed
independently by an individual to promote and
maintain personal well-being throughout life.
Orem’s Self-care Agency
Definition the individuals ability to perform
self-care activities
Consists of TWO agents
1. Self-care Agent - person who provides the
self-care
2. Dependent Care Agent - person other than the
individual who provides the care (such as a
parent)
Orem’s Self-care Requisites
(also called Self-care Needs)Definition the actions or measures used to
provide self-care
Consists of THREE categories
1. Universal - requisites/needs that are common to
all individuals
2. Developmental - needs resulting from maturation
or develop due to a condition or event
3. Health Deviation - needs resulting from illness,
injury disease or its treatment
Orem’s Self-care Deficit Theory
• nursing is required when an adult is incapable or limited in the
provision of continuous, effective self-care.
• Is the central focus of Orems Grand Theory of
Nursing
• Explains when nursing is needed
• Describes and explains how people can be helped
through nursing
Orem’s Self-care Deficit Theory
• Results when the Self-care Agency (patient) cant
meet her/his self-care needs or administer
self-care
• Nursing meets these self-care needs through five
methods of help
Five Methods of Nursing Help
1. Acting or doing for
2. Guiding
3. Teaching
4. Supporting
5. Providing an environment to promote the patients
ability to meet current or future demands
Orem’s Nursing Systems Theory
• Is how the patient's self-care needs will be
met by the nurse, the patient, or by both
Orem’s Nursing Systems Theory
• Describes..
1. Nursing responsibilities
2. Roles of the nurse and patient
3. Rationales for the nurse-patient relationship
4. Types of actions needed to meet the patients
demands
Orem’s Nursing Systems Theory
Refers to a series of actions a nurse takes to
meet a patients self-care needs
Is determined by the patients self-care needs
Is composed of THREE systems
1. Wholly compensatory
2. Partly compensatory
3. Supportive-educative
Three Nursing Systems
Wholly Compensatory a patients self-care agency
is so limited that s/he depends on others for
well-being
Partly Compensatory a pt can meet some self-care
requisites but needs a nurse to help meet others
Supportive-educative a pt can meet self-care
requisites but needs help in decision-making,
behavior control, or knowledge acquisition
Orem’s Theory Nursings(Global Concepts)
1. The human being
2. Environment
3. Health
4. Nursing
The human being
A person is composed of physical, psychological, interpersonal, and
social aspects.
They have the potential for learning and develop a way to meet self
care needs
Symbolize what they experience
The human being
• Human beings are distinguished from other living
beings by their capacity to
• Reflect upon themselves and their environment
• Symbolize what they experience
• Use symbolic creations (ideas, words) in
thinking, communicating, and guiding efforts to
make things that are beneficial for themselves
and/or for others
ENVIRONMENT
Environmental Conditions - external physical
psychosocial surroundings
Developmental Environment - promotion of personal
development through motivation to establish
appropriate goals to adjust behavior to meet
those goals
Can positively or negatively impact a persons
ability to provide self-care
NURSING
A service geared towards helping the self and
others
Is required when self-care demands exceed a
patients self-care ability (agency)
Promotes the patient as a self-care agent
Has several components
NURSING
Promotes the health of self and that of service of helping others.
It is actions by the nurse to overcome or prevent self care limitations.
A nurse may have to provide service that is wholly compensatory or
partly compensatory and also educate the client.
Components of NURSING
• NURSING ART: the theoretical base of nursing and
other disciplines such as sciences, art,
humanities
• NURSING PRUDENCE: the quality that enables the
nurse to seek advice in new or difficult
situations, to make correct judgements, to decide
to act in a particular manner, and/or to act
• NURSING SERVICE :a helping service
• NURSING AGENCY: the ability of the RN
Components of NURSING
• ROLE THEORY: the role of the nurse patient are
complementary as they work together to achieve
self-care
• SPECIAL TECHNOLOGIES:
• Social Interpersonal technologies -
communicating, coordinating, establishing
maintaining therapeutic relations, rendering
assistance
• Regulatory technologies - maintaining and
promoting life processes, growth/development, and
psycho-physiologic modes of functioning
HEALTH
Is the internal and external conditions that permit self-care needs to be
met
The person as a whole
It is a team effort by the nurse and patient for the promotion of self
care
HEALTH
Supports health promotion and health maintenance
Supports the premises of holistic health in that
both RN and patient promote the individuals
responsibility for self care
Evaluation of Orem’s self-care theory
Orem’s self-care theory can be used in all settings because the theory
starts with maintenance of sufficient intake of air, water, and food.
The theory also focuses on elimination and balancing activity with
rest. Because these the necessities of the basic life functions, this
theory can be used in any department.
The concepts are easily understood in which the nursing process is
used to determine the self-care deficit.
self-care theory would be used in dealing with illness, injury, or
disease such as cancer, a heart attack, a stroke, or even adjusting to a
different job because of a condition.
THANK YOU
