Nursing theories are crucial in nursing education because they provide a foundation for future practice. Ideas and concepts expressed by nursing theorists can help nurses to define their personal philosophies of nursing, thus ensuring a more holistic approach to patient care. Dorothea Orem’s nursing theory is one of the most prominent works in this area, which has been applied by nurses in various practice settings. In this paper, I will discuss the video on Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Framework and my reflections on it.
I chose to watch the video on Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Framework, as I believe that this nursing theory is critical to the contemporary nursing practice. Today, the prevalence of chronic conditions is high, and it is expected to grow further in the next few years (World Health Organization, n.d.). Therefore, instead of receiving care in inpatient settings, many patients need to manage their conditions in home settings.
Failure to follow care providers’ recommendations can lead to exacerbations of chronic illnesses and result in long-term consequences. Thus, ensuring that people have the skills and knowledge necessary to achieve adequate self-care is crucial to promoting population health today. Orem’s Self-Care Framework provides tools that can help nurses assess patients’ self-care capacity and enhance it to achieve positive health outcomes.
My personal nursing philosophy was greatly influenced by Orem’s nursing theory since it is relevant to my practice in primary care settings. Similarly to Orem, I believe that people are distinct individuals who have the capacity to care for their health (Petiprin, 2016). I also think that nursing is the process of developing the patient’s capacity for self-care to achieve better health. Hence, patient education is a critical part of the nursing process because it helps patients to understand their current health condition and strategies for improving it. One part of my theory that does not correspond to Orem’s nursing theory is the definition of illness and its causes.
Whereas Orem believes that illness is often the result of poor self-care, I think that there are many factors contributing to the disease that are out of individual’s control and cannot be mediated by adequate self-care.
There were no parts of the video that were particularly surprising to me, but it was interesting to find out more about Dorothea Orem and her work in nursing. The video discusses how her professional and academic experience has influenced her nursing philosophy and the development of the Self-Care framework. I was particularly impressed by Orem’s comments on the nature of nursing. In the video, she stated that she viewed nursing as a service to people rather than a derivative of medicine.
I believe that this point has helped me to gain a more in-depth understanding or Orem’s nursing theory because it defines the nursing process in terms of its benefit for patients. I would recommend this video to another nursing student because it is informative and useful for applying Orem’s framework in nursing practice. I also think that it would be interesting for other students to learn more about the origins of Orem’s Self-Care Framework.
All in all, Dorothea Orem’s nursing theory can make a significant contribution to nursing practice in contemporary healthcare settings. It assists nurses in enhancing patients’ capacity for self-care, which is essential to the successful management of chronic illness. The video about Dorotea Orem and her framework had a lot of interesting information about the theory and its development, which can assist nurses in applying this theory in their practice settings. I enjoyed watching the video and would recommend it to another student who it interested in Orem’s Self-Care Framework.
References
Petiprin, A. (2016). Self care deficit theory. Web.
World Health Organization. (n.d.). 2. Background. Web.