At the moment, nursing is one of the central aspects of the healthcare sector. Being responsible for the cooperation with patients and delivery of needed care, nurses should possess and outstanding competence in different spheres. Additionally, the tendency towards the further increase in complexity and enhanced sophistication of challenges health workers face today, stipulates the need for the efficient tools that could help to attain better outcomes. Under these conditions, different nursing theories acquire the top priority as a potent approach to engage in beneficial cooperation with a patient and satisfy his/her basic health needs. Therefore, the given paper delves into the self-care deficit theory created and introduced by Orem, its central peculiarities, and advantages that precondition its use in diverse situations to promote patients recovery and improved quality of lives.
Nevertheless, the application of any nursing theory provides a health worker with a wide range of tools and approaches that could be used to assess the state of a patient, understand his/her current needs and requirements that should be met and problematic aspects that should be solved. The fact is that the appearance of a particular nursing theory is stipulated by the emergence of a critical health problem that deteriorates the health of the nation and demands much effort to eliminate causes of its development. For this reason, applying nursing theories, including self-care deficit theory by Orem, a specialist uses previous experiences and the most effective approaches created in the course of the comprehensive investigation of a particular sphere, factors that precondition deterioration of outcomes, and negative consequences. In such a way, the use of nursing theories is an integral part of the functioning of any nurse who cares about patients.
Speaking about the self-care deficit theory, it is essential to outline its basic concepts. It was created in 1959 and had been upgraded until the authors deaths in 2007 (Alligood & Tomey, 2013). The central idea of this approach is that all human beings have an ability of self-care. Orem defines self-care as activities aimed at healthy living, which are performed by individuals on a daily basis (Jarošová, 2014). Self-care behaviors are not consistent throughout life and depend on age, gender, existing health conditions, as well as on environment and family (Jarošová, 2014). Self-care requisites defined by Orem include universal (water and food intake, the balance of activity and rest, etc.), developmental, and therapeutic. According to Orem, nursing care is designed to fulfill the self-care deficit to bring the individual to a desirable level of independence in self-care (Jarošová, 2014). These basic assumptions created the basis for the further development of Orems theory and its becoming one of the leading methods to work with patients nowadays.
Thus, the primary purpose of the given paper is the in-depth investigation of the self-care deficit theory and its central assumptions. For this reason, the work consists of four logically interconnected sections. The first part, introduction, creates the basis for the research by identifying the significance of nursing theories, opportunities for their implementation into the real-life setting, and suggesting the brief overview of the selected concept by Orem. The next section overviews the issue and its aspects including nurses relation to it, main stakeholders and the frequency of its occurrence. Application of the selected nursing theory section describes the way in which the chosen theory resolves the issue and what strategy could be used to do it. Finally, concluding section summarizes all findings of the paper and discusses Orems theory and its practical use in the modern healthcare settings.
Description of Issue or Concern
As it has already been stated, Orems self-deficit theory could be applied to numerous cases within the modern healthcare sector. It increases the significance of the approach and the sphere of its application. Thus, the paper is focused on the exploration of the self-care deficit theory to patients suffering from disabilities, paralysis, and other complications associated with ischemic stroke. In other words, a specific issue is the provision of the needed care to patients who have experienced ischemic stroke and suffer from its complication. The central problem is that the rehabilitation period could be too complex especially in elderly patients and the emergence of the self-care deficit in this group could be noted (Goyal et al., 2015).
Thus, there no clear supportive policies to assist such patients in their recovery. Moreover, regarding the tendency towards the increase in its incidence, the problem acquires the top priority in the modern healthcare sector (Matney, Avant, & Staggers, 2016). Besides, the nursing literature states that ischemic stroke is one of the leading causes of death in the USA and worldwide (Matney et al., 2016). Every year the number of patients who suffer from this disease increases and there is no visible improvement of the situation (Goyal et al., 2015). Investigating patients who have experienced this health problem and tried to rehabilitate, researchers conclude that the provision of the appropriate assistance, education, and care plays a critical role in patients complete recovery and their ability to lead traditional lifestyles (Matney et al., 2016). For this reason, nurses participation becomes crucial to facilitate care delivery and ensure that patients will recover and remain healthy.
Nevertheless, the given concern is closely related to the sphere of nursing. First, one of the nurses primary tasks is the provision of needed services and care to patients who need it. For this reason, the work with individuals experiencing complications of a stroke is one of the direct obligations of these health specialists. Moreover, the majority of patients engage in the direct cooperation with nurses who become responsible for their education and explanation of their current state (Goyal et al., 2015). In this regard, the appearance of the self-care deficit in acute settings or in patients who are disabled because of ischemic stroke correlates with nurses daily responsibilities and their primary tasks. It also means that they should be ready to implement the most efficient approaches to help this group of patients in their recovery and attain the enhanced quality of their lives.
There are also several stakeholders who might impact or become affected by the issue. First, these are patients and their families or close people. Being interested in positive outcomes, they will obviously participate in the process and cooperate with nurses to attain enhanced results and guarantee restoration of all functions of a patient who has experience ischemic stroke. Therefore, nurses who provide specific services to patients could also be considered stakeholders as they become impacted by its results and peculiarities. Moreover, other health workers or stuff of a particular health unit take part in the process as they engage in relations with this category of patients and might use different resources to guarantee the gradual improvement of a patients state. In such a way, numerous agents might ensure the successful implementation of the model and its further development.
Application of Selected Nursing Theory to Issue or Concern
Nevertheless, as we have already stated, the selected nursing theory is created by Oren in 1959 and is focused on self-care as one of the central elements of the healthcare system. This concept encompasses all activities performed by individuals to promote healthy living and attain significant alterations in their states. Moreover, beneficial self-care behaviors depend on age and on the state of a patient greatly. For this reason, one of the central aims of nurses is the assessment of patients needs for activities of this sort and provision of their support to fulfill the self-care deficit when it emerges. These peculiarities of the model contribute to its enhanced efficiency in the cases like the suggested one as the majority of patients who have complications triggered by ischemic stroke are aged and might have unique needs for self-care.
Thus, in accordance with Orems assumptions, five basic actions should be performed by nurses to re-establish patients capacity for self-care which include care actions, guiding patients, provision of both psychological and physical aid, the creation of the positive environment, and teaching (Jarošová, 2014). For this reason, the strategy for the implementation of the chosen theory and its use should include the following aspects. First, it is critical to create the list of all care actions that might be needed to attain positive alteration in the state of the patient. Second, the patient should be guided during the initial stage of his/her recovery and provided with the needed help. Third, the patient should be explained all benefits of the suggested model and peculiarities of its use in practice. Finally, the environment in which the patient could perform particular actions to fulfill the deficit of self-care should be created. These are the basic stages of the implementation phase that should be introduced to guarantee desired results.
The use of the selected nursing model will apparently contribute to the patients rehabilitation and restoration of his/her ability to perform traditional actions. Several facts prove the efficiency of the theory in resolving this health issue. First, the patients deficit in self-care will be fulfilled which means that he/she will become able to perform actions that improve the state of the health and contribute to numerous positive alterations in the mode of life. Second, the majority of patients who recover from ischemic stroke suffer from reduced mobility and other disabilities that could be eliminated by specific training and actions (Lohse, Lang, & Boyd, 2014). Statistics show that individuals who are provided with detailed instructions from their nurses demonstrate much better results (Aslani, Alimohammadi, Taleghani & Khorasani, 2016). In such a way, the exploration of the self-care deficit model will obviously help to attain positive changes in patients with problematic symptoms. Moreover, using the data collected during the implementation of the approach, we could create the basis for the future research related to the use of Orems theory in acute settings or patients with even more severe complications.
Conclusion
Altogether, the self-care deficit model demonstrates high efficiency among populations who suffer from different disabilities. It could be applied to patients recovering after ischemic stroke an help them to rehabilitate by fulfilling their self-care deficit and teaching how to engage in beneficial activities. For this reason, the further research is needed to continue the investigation of its applicability and practical use.
References
Alligood, M. R., & Tomey, A. M. (2013). Nursing theorists and their work. Kidlington, UK: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Aslani, Z, Alimohammadi, N, Taleghani, F, & Khorasani, P 2016, ‘Nurses’ empowerment in self-care education to stroke patients: an action research study’, International Journal of Commonly Based Nursing Midwifery, vol. 4, no.4, pp. 329-338.
Goyal, M, Demchuk, A, Menon, B, Eesa, M, Rempel, J, Thornton, J & Roy, D 2015, ‘Randomized assessment of rapid endovascular treatment of ischemic stroke’, The New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 372, no. 1, pp. 1019-1030.
Jarošová, D. (2014). Nursing theories and models. Web.
Lohse, K, Lang, C. & Boyd, L 2014, ‘Is better? Using metadata to explore dose–response relationships in stroke rehabilitation’, American Stroke Association, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 2053-2058.
Matney, S. A., Avant, K., & Staggers, N. (2016). Toward an understanding of wisdom in nursing. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 21(2).