Dorothea Orem was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1914. Her father was a construction worker and her mother, a homemaker. She was the youngest amongst two daughters. She lived in Maryland until she graduated from Seton High School in 1981 and received her diploma in nursing in 1934 from Providence Hospital School of Nursing in Washington, D.C.. At Providence Hospital, Washington, D.C. and St. John 's Hospital, Lowell, Massachusetts, Orem practiced in the frontline of nursing as a staff and supervisor in various areas such as the Operating Room, Emergency Room, Pediatrics, Medical-Surgical, as well as Private duty nursing (John Hopkins Medical Institute [JHMI], n.d.).
Education
Orem continued to pursue higher education and received …show more content…
Her writings were embraced by graduate level nurses, nursing educators, and researchers which inspired the international nursing community to pursue practical applications in their clinical settings. The idea of self-care & health promotion was fully accepted and was a promising concept in helping advance nursing as an independent discipline in healthcare. The Orem International Society & Orem herself traveled to do conferences to disseminate her studies when there were only few translations of this book were around at the …show more content…
She claims that the theory shows validity in all areas of nursing with minimal anomalies and maximal explanation and illumination. She explained the four ideas expressing the beauty of the world of nursing: nursing as a practice discipline; nursing as deliberate action; nursing as a helping, human health service and science; nursing as self-care of another self (Biggs, 2008).
Taylor et al. (2000) claim that there have been only four studies that fit the qualitative and quantitative criteria of research using Orem’s theory. They purport that the theory has been used without its further development and expansion. While the Self-care theory has been used in a wide array of applications, there has been a limited furtherance of the self-care concept in the area of research (Taylor, Gordon, Isaramalai & Wongvatynyu, 2000).
Phenomenon of Interest
In order for nurses to deliver care, they must have the understanding of self-care. Self care is the main idea in Orem’s theory with the basic premise that individuals who take responsibility for their own health and well being will be better equipped to care for the health of others (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). This implies that when people are able, they care for themselves and when people are unable to care for themselves, the nurse provides the needed care (University of Tennessee in Chattanooga [UTC],