THE PHENOMENOM

As a staff nurse in medical ward, many of our patients have respiratory and heart problems. All of them have different health problems and needs, some of them are intubated and some of them are comatose after cardiac arrest. ”Nurses work in life situations with others to bring about the conditions that are beneficial to persons nursed. Nursing demands the exercise of both the speculative and practical intelligence of nurses. In nursing practice situations, nurses must have accurate information and be knowing about existent conditions and circumstances of patients and about emerging changes in them. This knowledge is the concrete base for nurses’ development of creative practical insights of what can be done to bring about beneficial relationships or conditions that do not presently exist. Asking and answering the questions, ‘what is?’ and ‘what can be?’ are nurse’s point of departure in nursing practice situation.” (Orem, 1995, p. 155) Dorothea Orem 's Self Care Deficit Theory encompasses all aspect relating to the patient 's health, nursing and all the factors that affect which. The concepts discussed revolve mainly around self care. It is the patient 's ability to care for himself and his dependents as well as others as dictated by the environment he lives in that determines health or the need for assistance in maintaining health. On the other hand, the society plays the major role into regulating the nursing care process as to when nursing care is needed and when and how the nursing system is implemented. It is also the environment and the society that directly affect the nurse-patient relationship and self care agency, which are all interconnected into achieving, restoring, and maintaining health.
- N207 manual on Theoretical Foundations of Nursing

The overall purpose of Orem 's theory is not just to view the person as a whole, but to
Utilize nursing knowledge to restore and maintain the patient 's health. The

References: N207 manual on Theoretical Foundations of Nursing Fundamentals of Nursing by Kozier et.al Fifth Edition http://currentnursing.com/nursing_theory/self_care_deficit_theory.html Dorothea Orem 's Self Care Deficit Theory by Jean Bridge et.al, Troy University