Dorothea Orem

By

Dorothea Orem

History

Dorothea Orem has rendered great services in the field of nursing and holds a significant place in this regard. Before approaching and moving forward in the context of this paper, it is essential to decipher the roots of Dorothea Orem and whether these roots in any way affected her behavior or her services. Dorothea Orem was born in the year 1914 at Baltimore. She was a qualified nurse, hence knew her field of study inside out. It would be safe to state that theories which she formulated have a lot to do with her academic background (Denyes, Orem & Bekel, 2001). She did her diploma from the Providence Hospital, which is situated in Washington. Later on, she completed her BSN Ed and MSN Ed, from the Catholic University of America.

After acquiring expertise in her subject of area she did not limit herself in one role only, rather she worked in different spirits. She worked as stuff nurse and also rendered her services privately, since those who by any limitation were not able to come to the hospital was facilitated by Dorothea Orem at their footstep. As highlighted earlier that she rendered her services in different services, however, worth mentioning among those tend to the as nurse educator and administrator. It was this role of her which pushed her to formulate different theories relating her subject area which by every means was nursing. It was due to her these efforts that she received an honorary Doctor of Science degree in the year 1976. Theories formulated by Dorothea Orem held significance not only for the coming years but held its ground even till the advent of time period rendered as new millennium.

Theories

The theories rendered by Dorothea Orem was based on the nomenclature of self reliant, moreover, Dorothea Orem also reiterated the fact that the manner in which the family members can take care it is far more superior than any other nurse, entitled for the same duty(Orem, Renpenning & Taylor, 2003). This notion is also reliant on the fact that since the needs of every individual tends to differ, therefore the nurses can sometimes fail to provide the care as per the individualized needs. Thus the notion of self-care has been predominantly evident in the theories proposed by the Dorothea Orem. The major theories proposed by Dorothea Orem are discussed as under:

Theory of Self Care

As it is evident from the name that this theory encourages the individual to look after or develop an attitude where he or she can take care of themselves. Since the manner in which an individual understand him or herself is far superior than the interpretation of his or her cognitive and physical sate by a nurse. In this regard, theory also inculcates the notion of self care agency, which is present in every individual and is the ability to look after him or herself, however, this notion tends to lessen by age. Self care however does not means that it has no standards or ...