The focus of Orem's model of nursing is to enhance the patient's ability for self-care and extend this ability to care for their dependents (Orem, 2005). A person's self-care deficits are a result of their environment. Three systems exist within the professional nursing model: the compensatory system, in which the nurse provides total care; the partial compensatory system, in which the nurse and the patients share responsibilities for care; and the educative-development system, in which the patient has the primary responsibility for personal health, with the nurse acting as a consultant (Central, 2005; Orem, 2005). The basic premise of Orem's model is that individuals can take responsibility for their health and the health of others, and in a general sense, individuals have the capacity to care for themselves and their dependents.
Orem's self-care deficit theory of nursing is composed of three related theories: 1) the theory of self-care, describing how people care for themselves; 2) the theory of self-care deficit, which describes why people can be helped through nursing; and 3) the theory of nursing systdms describing and explaining relationships that must be initiated and maintained for nursing to be produced (Taylor, 191). Self-care is what a person does to establish and maintain their health, personal development and well-being. A formulated self-care requisite names: a) the factor to be managed to keep an aspect of human functioning and development within the norms compatible with health and personal well-being; and b) the nature of the required action. The formalized self-care requisite is the reason for which self-care is undertaken, and expresses the desired results.
The universal goals to be met by self-care originate from what is known and validated or in the process of being validated, about human structural and functional integrity at various stages in the life cycle (Central, 2005; Taylor, 191). Univers...