Reasons for watching the video
I chose to watch the video related to Orem’s Theory because the theory relates significantly to my nursing perspective. I believe that a nurse’s primary role is to help care for patients in their time of need. Orem’s self-care deficit theory is therefore vital in my perspective of nursing because the theory clearly highlights that nurses are involved in providing specialized assistance to individuals in conditions that result in self-care deficit. Through the assistance of nurses, patients with self-care deficits are therefore able to meet their self-care needs.
Personal philosophy in comparison to Orem’s Theory
My personal nursing philosophy agrees with Orem’s self-care deficit theory in some areas, while it disagrees with the theory in other instances. My nursing philosophy is based on the view that nursing is both an art and a science. The science part of nursing comes with drawing up various evidence-based practices and researching to come up with effective interventions to assure patients of quality outcomes. On the other hand, the art part of nursing comes with communicating with patients effectively and providing specialized care to meet the needs of patients. My nursing philosophy of viewing nursing as both a science and art agrees with Orem’s self-care deficit theory. Through Orem’s theory, nursing is viewed as the art of providing specialized assistance to individuals with certain disabilities to meet their self-care needs. A nurse combines the scientific and artistic elements of nursing to identify the self-care needs of a patient and effectively plug the self-care deficit (ONeill, 2019).
Orem’s definition of humans is also similar to that of my nursing philosophy. In my nursing philosophy, I view humans as the main recipients of care services from nurses. On the other hand, Orem defines humans as children, men, and women who receive care either individually or as social units. Orem views humans as the main recipients of direct care from nurses (Borji et al., 2017).
Orem’s theory’s perspective of the environment is also similar to that of my personal nursing philosophy. I believe that the environment includes various elements that affect a patient, including where they live, their culture, family, and occupation, among other elements. Orem’s theory defines the environment as the biological, physical, and chemical features, including community, culture, and family of patients. Therefore, the self-care deficit needs of a patient will be significantly affected by their environment (Borji et al., 2017).
Despite my nursing philosophy agreeing with Orem’s theory, our definition of health seems to differ. I define health as a synthesis of illness and wellness, which is greatly affected by the experiences and the perception of a given individual across their lifespan. The level of health affecting an individual will be related to the interactive processes between the environment and human beings. In contrast, Orem defines health as being functionally or structurally sound and whole. According to Orem, health encompasses both individuals and groups. According to Orem, health is a result of reflecting on oneself, communicating effectively with others, and symbolizing various experiences (Borji et al., 2017).
Orem’s theory also includes various concepts such as self-care, self-care agency, and basic conditioning factors, which are concepts that I have not integrated into my personal philosophy. According to Orem, self-care is the ability of an individual to perform various activities on their own behalf to maintain health, life, and well-being. On the other hand, according to Orem, self-care agency is the ability of an individual to effectively engage in various self-care activities, which will be significantly affected by various conditioning factors. The basic conditioning factors that will affect the self-care agency of an individual will therefore influence the health state, developmental state, health care system factors, patterns of living, environmental factors, availability, and adequacy of resources (Didisen et al., 2017).
Surprises in the video
What surprised me watching Orem describe her self-care deficit theory is Orem’s description of when nursing care is needed among patients. According to Orem, patients only require nursing services when they experience a self-care deficit which is when a patient is unable to meet their self-care needs. Although I agree with Orem that patients need nursing services when they experience self-care deficit, there are situations where patients may need nursing services even before they experience self-care deficit. For instance, the i
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