Dorothea Orem Quotation from Readings
In her article on Dorothea Orem's self-care deficit theory of nursing, Susan G. Taylor cites Orem (2001), who defines nursing systems as "series and sequences of deliberate practical actions of nurses performed at times in coordination with actions of their patients to know and meet components of their patients' therapeutic self-care demands and to protect and regulate the exercise of patients' self-care agency (p. 519, as cited in Taylor, n.d., p. 271). The strengths of this definition are that it identifies how nursing actions are designed to meet the needs of the patient and that they are intended to protect the patient's need to provide self care. Its primary weakness is that it places all of nursing in the context of the patient's self-care, which is a rather utilitarian perspective devoid of holistic insight into the patient's needs as a person.
Whether or not a patient can care for himself is certainly a pivotal issue in terms of whether he needs nursing care or not, but it is definitely not the most important issue that nurses should be considering in providing care. Rather, the nurse should be promoting healing in many ways, from providing a healing environment to dispensing needed medications to encouraging and supporting the patient emotionally and spiritually.
A question that might be asked in this context is: What is the most important aspect of nursing with respect to a patient's recovery?
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