Dorothea Orem’s Self-Care Deficit Theory focuses on each “individual’s ability to perform self-

care, defined as ‘the practice of activities that individuals initiate and perform on their own
behalf in maintaining life, health, and well-being.”

The Self-Care or Self-Care Deficit Theory of Nursing is composed of three interrelated theories:
(1) the theory of self-care, (2) the self-care deficit theory, and (3) the theory of nursing systems,
which is further classified into wholly compensatory, partially compensatory and supportive-
educative.

All the three major concepts work hand in hand in such a way that, they aid in identifying self-
care deficits and developing roles for both patients and nurses in obtaining desired goals in a safe
and supportive environment. Nursing systems, in particular, stress the several efforts nurses and
patients make to ensure that their self-care needs are met. Orem noticed that people who work
in the healthcare industry usually make products that are just for them. The idea is that there are
two different kinds of technology. First is interaction with other people (Queirós et al., 2014).
Changes are made to how this group communicates based on their age and health. The nurse
stresses the importance of keeping relationships between people and between groups so that it
is easier to coordinate activities. The clinician must build a therapeutic relationship based on how
the person's mind works, both when they are healthy and when they are sick. In this area, the
nurse helps people in ways specific to their needs, activities, abilities, and limits. The second
group comprises regulatory changes that keep the biological activity going. This group controls
how the body and mind work, both when healthy and when sick. Nurses should keep the body's
mobility and position in its environment and help it thrive. Orem's view on nursing practice gives
a way to figure out where a person lacks self-care and what the patient or doctor needs to do to
meet those needs. The technological part of nursing practice is thought to be the steps of the
approach. Orem says that technology must be combined with psychological and social factors in
nursing. This paradigm says that the nursing process is made up of three steps. First, an
evaluation is done to determine the problem or concern that needs to be fixed. The next step is
making a nursing care plan and diagnosis (Queirós et al., 2014). Application and analysis are the
third and final steps in nursing practice. The nurse puts the healthcare plan into action so that the
patient and the healthcare team can reach their goals. After the nursing care is done, the nurse
looks at how well the plan worked by looking at the results.

Self-care is the practice of taking care of oneself. Self-care requirements fall into three categories:
developmental, general, and health-related. Indicators of universal self-care needs can be
gleaned from conditions that apply to everyone's daily life. The demands imposed by the lessons
and therapies designed to assist a person in achieving or maintaining health and happiness might
be considered self-care requirements for growth. Self-care needs for health aberrations are those
necessitated by disease or its treatment (Hartweg & Metcalfe, 2021).