Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing: Dorothea E. Orem
Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing: Dorothea E. Orem
Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing: Dorothea E. Orem
14
Dorothea E. Orem
1914 to 2007
240
CHAPTER 14 Dorothea E. 241
Orem
throughout the state. During this time, Orem devel- American Academy of Nursing, 1992. She was
oped her definition of nursing practice (Orem, awarded the Doctor of Nursing Honoris Causae
1956). from the University of Missouri in 1998.
In 1957, Orem moved to Washington, DC, to
take a position at the Office of Education, U.S.
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, as
a curriculum consultant. From 1958 to 1960, she
worked on a proj- ect to upgrade practical nurse
training. That project stimulated a need to
address the question: What is the subject matter
of nursing? As a result, Guides for Developing
Curricula for the Education of Practical Nurses was
developed (Orem, 1959). Later that year, Orem
became an assistant professor of nursing edu-
cation at CUA. She subsequently served as
acting dean of the School of Nursing and as
associate profes- sor of nursing education. She
continued to develop her concepts of nursing and
self-care at CUA. Formal- ization of concepts
sometimes was accomplished alone and
sometimes with others. Members of the Nursing
Models Committee at CUA and the Improve- ment
in Nursing Group, which later became the
Nursing Development Conference Group
(NDCG), all contributed to the development of
the theory. Orem provided intellectual leadership
throughout these collaborative endeavors.
In 1970, Orem left CUA and began her own
con- sulting firm. Orem’s first published book was
Nursing: Concepts of Practice (Orem, 1971). She
was editor for the NDCG as they prepared and
later revised Concept Formalization in Nursing:
Process and Product (NDCG, 1973, 1979). In 2004, a
reprint of the second edition was produced and
distributed by the International Orem Society for
Nursing Science and Scholarship (IOS).
Subsequent editions of Nursing: Concepts of
Practice were published in 1980, 1985, 1991, 1995,
and 2001. Orem retired in 1984 and continued
working, alone and with colleagues, on the
development of the Self-Care Deficit Nursing
Theory (SCDNT).
Georgetown University conferred on Orem the
honorary degree of Doctor of Science in 1976.
She received the CUA Alumni Association
Award for Nursing Theory in 1980. Other
honors received in- cluded Honorary Doctor of
Science, Incarnate Word College, 1980; Doctor of
Humane Letters, Illinois Wesleyan University,
1988; Linda Richards Award, National League for
Nursing, 1991; and Honorary Fellow of the
CHAPTER 14 Dorothea E. 242
At age 92, Dorothea Orem’s life ended after a Orem
(2001) thinking was, “What con- dition exists in a
period of being bedridden. She died Friday, person when judgments are made that a nurse(s)
June 22, 2007, at her residence on Skidaway should be brought into the situation?”
Island, Georgia. Survivors were her lifelong
friend, Walene Shields of Savannah, and her
cousin Martin Conover of Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Tributes by Orem’s close colleagues
were featured in the IOS official journal, Self-
Care, Dependent- Care & Nursing (SCDCN).
Orem’s many papers and presentations
provide insight into her views on nursing
practice, nursing education, and nursing
science. Some of these papers are now available
to nursing scholars in a compilation edited by
Renpenning and Taylor (2003). Other pa- pers
of Orem and scholars who worked with her in
the development of the theory can be found
in the Orem Archives at The Alan Mason
Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns
Hopkins Medical Institutions.
tures and physiological or psychological mechanisms, but the requisites, the values of which are regulatory
also integrated human functioning. When inte- grated of human functioning (sufficiency of air, water,
functioning is affected seriously (severe mental and food)
retardation and comatose states), the individual’s n Fulfilling the activity element of the
Self-Care Agency
The self-care agency is a complex acquired ability
of mature and maturing persons to know and
meet their continuing requirements for deliberate,
purpo- sive action to regulate their own human
functioning and development (Orem, 2001, p.
522).
Dependent-Care Agency
Dependent-care agency refers to the acquired ability
of a person to know and meet the therapeutic
self-care demand of the dependent person and/or
regulate the development and exercise of the
dependent’s self-care agency.
Self-Care Deficit
Self-care deficit is the relation between an
individual’s therapeutic self-care demands and his
or her powers of self-care agency in which the
constituent-developed self-care capabilities within
self-care agency are in- operable or inadequate
for knowing and meeting some or all
components of the existent or projected
therapeutic self-care demand (Orem, 2001, p. 522).
Dependent-Care Deficit
Dependent-care deficit is a relationship that
exists when the dependent care provider’s
agency is not adequate to meet the therapeutic
self-care demand of the person receiving
dependent care.
Nursing Agency
Nursing agency comprises developed capabilities
of persons educated as nurses that empower
them to represent themselves as nurses and within
the frame of a legitimate interpersonal
relationship to act, to know, and to help persons
in such relationships to meet their therapeutic
also incorporates the capabilities of nurses to assist
persons who provide dependent care to regulate the
development or exercise of their dependent-care
agency.
Nursing Design
Nursing design, a professional function performed
both before and after nursing diagnosis and pre-
scription, allows nurses, on the basis of reflective
practical judgments about existent conditions, to
synthesize concrete situational elements into or-
derly relations to structure operational units. The
purpose of nursing design is to provide guides for
achieving needed and foreseen results in the pro-
duction of nursing toward the achievement of
nursing goals; these units taken together constitute
the pattern that guides the production of nursing
(Orem, 2001, p. 519).
Nursing Systems
Nursing systems are series and sequences of deliber-
ate practical actions of nurses performed at times in
coordination with the actions of their patients to
know and meet components of patients’ therapeutic
self-care demands and to protect and regulate the
exercise or development of patients’ self-care agency
(Orem, 2001, p. 519).
Helping Methods
A helping method from a nursing perspective is a
sequential series of actions that, if performed, will
overcome or compensate for the health-associated
limitations of individuals to engage in actions to
regulate their own functioning and development or that
of their dependents. Nurses use all methods,
selecting and combining them in relation to the
action demands on individuals under nursing care
and their health-associated action limitations, as
follows:
n Acting for or doing for another
n Guiding and directing
Use of Empirical Evidence felt were de- scriptive of nursing and would contribute
As a practical science, nursing knowledge is to nursing
devel- oped to inform nursing practice. Orem
(2001) stated that, “nursing is practical endeavor,
but it is practical endeavor engaged in by persons
who have special- ized theoretic nursing
knowledge with developed capabilities to put this
knowledge to work in concrete situations of
nursing practice” (p. 161). The provision of
nursing care occurs in concrete situations. As
nurses enter into nursing practice situations,
they use their knowledge of nursing science to
assign meaning to the features of the situation,
to make judgments about what can and should be
done, and to design and implement systems of
nursing care. From the perspective of the SCDNT,
desired nursing outcomes include meeting the
patient’s therapeutic self-care demand and/or
regulating and developing the patient’s self-care
agency.
The conceptual elements and the specific theories
of the SCDNT are abstractions about the features
com- mon to all nursing practice situations. The
SCDNT was developed and refined through the use
of intellectual processes that focused on nursing
practice situations. For example, Orem reflected on
her nursing practice experiences to identify the
proper object of nursing. In their work related to
the SCDNT, the Nursing Development Conference
Group (1979) engaged in analysis of nursing cases
and in processes of analogical reasoning. In a
tribute to Orem, Allison (2008) talks about the
Nursing Development Conference Group, saying
that “these nurses came together because they were
interested in and willing to commit themselves to
examining nursing situations in order to
formalize ways of thinking about nursing that they
knowledge” (p. 50). Since the SCDNT was first
pub- lished, extensive empirical evidence has
contributed to the development of theoretical
knowledge. Much of this is incorporated into
continuing refinement of the theory; however,
the basics of the theory remain unchanged. The
theory of dependent care represents a major
advancement in terms of the development of
the SCDNT. “The increased need in societies
for dependent-care indicates the importance for
nurses of understanding dependent-care and their
relationships to dependent-care agents”
(Orem, 2001, p. 286).
Theoretical Assertions
Presented as a general theory of nursing, one
that represents a complete picture of nursing, the
SCDNT is expressed in the following three
theories:
1. Theory of nursing systems
2. Theory of self-care deficit
3. Theory of self-care
The three constituent theories, taken together in
relationship, constitute the SCDNT. The theory
of nursing systems is the unifying theory and
includes all the essential elements. It subsumes the
theory of self-care deficit and the theory of self-
care. The theory of self-care deficit develops the
reason why a person may benefit from nursing.
The theory of self-care, foundational to the
others, expresses the purpose, method, and
outcome of taking care of self.
Theory of Self-Care
Self-care is a human regulatory function
that indi- viduals must, with deliberation,
perform themselves or must have performed
for them to maintain life, health,
development, and well-being. Self-care is an
action system. Elaboration of the concepts of
self- care, self-care demand, and self-care agency
provides the foundation for understanding the
action require- ments and action limitations
of persons who may benefit from nursing. Self-
care, as a human regulatory function, is distinct
from other types of regulation of human
functioning and development, such as neuro-
endocrine regulation. Self-care must be
learned, and it must be performed deliberately
and continuously in time and in conformity
with the regulatory requirements of
individuals. These requirements are associated
with their stages of growth and develop-
ment, states of health, specific features of
health or developmental states, levels of
energy expenditure, and environmental
factors.
Theory of Dependent-Care
The theory of dependent care “explains
how the self-care system is modified when it
is directed to- ward a person who is socially
dependent and needs assistance in meeting
and dependent care are parallel, with the main
operational or become operational in the
dif- ference that when providing dependent-care,
production of nursing systems, systems of care for
the person is meeting the self-care needs of
individuals or for dependent-care units or multi-
another person. For the dependent-care agent,
person units served by nurses” (Orem, 1997, p.
the demands of providing dependent care can
31). The overall theory is logically congruent.
influence or condition the agent’s therapeutic self-
care demand and self-care agency. The need for
dependent-care is expected to grow with the Acceptance by the
increasing age of the population and the number Nursing Community
of persons living with chronic and/or disabling Orem’s SCDNT has achieved a significant level
conditions. of acceptance by the international nursing
community, as evidenced by the magnitude of
Logical Form published material and presentations at the
International Orem Society World Congresses
Orem’s insight led to her initial formalization and
(2008, 2011, and 2012). In research using the
subsequent expression of a general concept of
SCDNT or components, Biggs (2008) found more
nurs- ing. This generalization then made possible
than 800 references. Berbiglia identified se-
induc- tive and deductive thinking about
lected practice settings and SCDNT conceptual
nursing. The form of the theory is shown in the
foci from a review of more than 3 decades of
many models that Orem and others have
use of the SCDNT in practice and research and
developed, such as those shown in Figure 14–1
publicized selected international SCDNT practice
and Figure 14–2. Orem described the models and
models for the twenty-first century (in press).
their importance to the development and
The SCDNT was introduced as the basic
understanding of the reality of the entities. These
structure for nursing management in German
models are “. . . directed toward knowing the
hospital DRG (diagnosis-related group)
structure of the processes that are
implementation. The move- ment toward SCDNT-
based nursing management in
Self-care
Con
dit
Conditioning factors
io
Self-care Self-care ni
agency demands n
g
Deficit
Nursing
Conditioning factors
agency
Further Development
From the time of publication of the first edition
of Nursing: Concepts of Practice in 1971, Orem
was engaged in continual development of her
conceptual- izations. She worked by herself and
with colleagues. The sixth and final edition was
completed and pub- lished in 2001. Her work
with a group of scholars, known as the Orem
Study Group, further developed the various
conceptualizations and structured nurs- ing
knowledge using elements of the theory. This
work led to the expression of a Theory of
Dependent Care (Taylor, Renpenning, Geden, et
al., 2001) and the foundational Science of Self-
Care (Denyes, Orem, & Bekel, 2001).
Nursing: Concepts of Practice (Orem, 2001) is orga-
nized with two foci: nursing as a unique field of
knowledge and nursing as practical science. The
text includes an expansion, from earlier editions,
of con- tent on nursing science and the theory of
identified many areas for further development Simplicity
in her descriptions of the stages of theory Orem’s theory is expressed in a limited number
development. She also described the of terms. These terms are defined and used
development of the Science of Self-Care, consistently
which could include concepts such as elab-
oration of operational functions of self-care
agency with the elements of sensation and
perception, appraisal, and motivation, and
determining the relevance of foun- dational
capabilities and dispositions to discreet acts.
There is a need to focus on the person in the
situation and on capabilities for action and self-
management. This content has been expanded
in the description of the foundational nursing
Science of Self-Care (Denyes, Orem, & Bekel,
2001).
The IOS was established in 1993. The
purpose of the IOS is to advance nursing
science and scholar- ship through the use of
Orem’s nursing conceptual- izations in nursing
education, practice, and research. The IOS
publishes Self-Care, Dependent-Care &
Nursing, an open access online journal found
on the IOS website (http://www.orem-
society.com/). Since its inception, the IOS has
sponsored international conferences and
maintains a record of the content of these
conferences.
Clarity Critique
The terms Orem used are defined precisely.
The lan- guage of the theory is consistent with
the twenty-first century language used in
action theory and philoso- phy. The
terminology of the theory is congruent
throughout. The term self-care has multiple
meanings across disciplines; Orem defined the
term and elabo- rated the substantive
structure of the concept in a way that is
unique while also congruent with other inter-
pretations. Reference has been made to the
difficulty of Orem’s language; however, the
limitation generally resides in the reader’s lack of
familiarity with practical science and with the
field of action science. Once a basic
familiarity with the terminology of the
SCDNT is achieved, further reading and
studying of Orem’s work fosters a
comprehensive understanding of her view of
nursing as a field of knowledge and as a field
of practice.
in the expression of the theory. Orem’s general persons. Self-care system, dependent-care system,and
theory, the SCDNT, comprises the following four nursing
constituent theories: self-care, dependent-care, self-
care deficit,and nursing systems. The SCDNT is a
synthesis of knowl- edge about eight entities,
which include self-care (and dependent care), self-
care agency (and dependent-care agency),
therapeutic self-care demand, self-care deficit,
nursing agency, and nursing system. Development of
the theory using these entities is parsimonious.
The relationship between and among these entities
can be presented in a simple diagram. The
substantive structure of the theory is seen in the
development of these entities. The depth of
development of the con- cepts gives the theory the
complexity necessary to describe and understand a
human practice discipline.
Generality
Orem (1995) commented on the generality, or
univer- sality, of the theory as follows:
The self-care deficit theory of nursing is not an
explanation of the individuality of a particular
concrete nursing practice situation, but rather
the expression of a singular combination of
conceptualized properties or features common
to all instances of nursing. As a general
theory, it serves nurses engaged in nursing
practice, in development and validation of
nursing knowl- edge, and in teaching and
learning nursing (pp. 166–167).
A review of the research and other literature
attests to the generality of the theory.
Accessibility
As a general theory, the SCDNT provides a
descrip- tive explanation of why persons require
nursing and what processes are needed for the
production of required nursing care. The
concepts of the theory are abstractions of the
entities that represent the proper object of nurses
in concrete nursing practice situa- tions. Self-
care, dependent care, and nursing care all are
forms of deliberate action engaged in to achieve
a particular purpose. The concepts of thera- peutic
self-care demand, self-care agency, dependent- care
agency, and nursing agency refer to properties of
persons. Self-care deficitand dependent-care deficit
refer to relationships between properties of
system are systems of care that are designed theory of nursing systems provides a unique
and implemented to achieve desired focus for nursing. The significance of Orem’s work
outcomes. Basic conditioning factors refer to extends far beyond the development of the
factors that condition or influence the SCDNT. In her works, she provided expression of
variables of persons. These factors may be the form of nursing science as practical science,
internal to the person, such as along with a structure for ongoing development
developmental level, or external, such as of nursing
available resources. In nurs- ing practice
situations, the data collected by nurses can be
categorized readily according to the concepts
of the SCDNT.
For research purposes, both quantitative and
quali- tative research methods are appropriate
for the devel- opment of knowledge related to
the SCDNT. Specific research methods to be
used in any investigation are selected on the
basis of the questions being asked. Examples
of various approaches can be found in this
publication’s companion text summary of
recent SCDNT-based research (Berbiglia, in
press). Although the concepts of the SCDNT
refer to real entities, they are complex in
nature. Operationalization of these concepts
requires a comprehensive understanding of
Orem’s work. Instruments to measure some of
these concepts have been developed.
The current emphasis in the SCDNT is on
building a body of knowledge-related nursing
practice, rather than engaging in theory-testing
research. Instrument development has an
important role in building nurs- ing
knowledge as well as other types of
scholarly work. A great deal of work is
needed with regard to the structuring of
existent knowledge around the practice
sciences and the foundational nursing sci-
ences identified by Orem. Therefore,
comprehensive descriptive studies of various
populations in terms of their self-care
requisites and self-care practices are needed.
The structuring of existent knowledge and the
findings from descriptive studies will provide a
solid base for the development of
instruments to measure the concepts of the
SCDNT.
Importance
The SCDNT differentiates the focus of nursing
from other disciplines. Although other
disciplines find the theory of self-care helpful
and contribute to its devel- opment, the
knowledge in the stages of theory development.
a body of knowledge. The efforts of nurse scholars
Orem presented a visionary view of contemporary
and nurse researchers to build on this foundation
nursing practice, education, and knowledge
will result in a body of knowledge that serves
development ex- pressed through the general
nurses in their provision of care to persons
theory.
requiring nursing.
Infant
Feeble Elderly
Adult
Independent
FIGURE 14-3 Dependency cycle. (From Taylor, S. G., Renpenning, K. E., Geden, E. A., Neuman,
B. M., & Hart, M. A. (2001). The theory of dependent-care: A corollary to Orem’s theory of self-care.
Nursing Science Quarterly, 14(1), 39–47.)
SCA
TSCD
B
C SCDF DCD B
S
DC C
C
F SCA
Actions F
S
TSCD DCA
Responsible Person
Dependent Dependent Care Agent(s)
NOTE: BCF = basic conditioning factors; SCA = self-care agency; TSCD = therapeutic self-care
demand; SCDF = self-care deficit; DCD = dependent-care demand; DCA = dependent-care agency;
SCS = self-care system.
FIGURE 14-4 Basic dependent-care system. (From Taylor, S. G., Renpenning, K. E., Geden, E. A., Neuman,
A.M., & Hart, M. A. (2001). The theory of dependent-care: A corollary to Orem’s theory of self-care.
Nursing Science Quarterly, 14(1), 39–47.)
http://scdnt.com/.