Although Dorothea Orem's Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory has been used for curricula framework for years, it was not until 2001 that Orem identified the nursing practice sciences and the foundational nursing sciences and specified the appropriate content for the two sciences. The broad purpose of this paper is to reinforce the importance of utilizing nursing theories as curricular conceptual frameworks. The specific purpose is to delineate the appropriate content for baccalaureate programs that adopt a Self-Care Deficit Nursing Theory conceptual framework for their curriculum.
The Hispanic/Latino population is the second largest and fastest growing minority in the United States, with Mexican Americans comprising 60.4% of the total. Existing research instruments and procedures must be made culturally specific, both theoretically and empirically, for use with this population. Our purpose in the present study was to determine whether one part of the Health Promotion Self-Care Interview Guide (HPSCIG), developed to identify self-care actions that promote well-being in healthy, middle-aged Anglo American and African American women (Hartweg, 1991, 1993), was culturally sensitive for use with Mexican American women. This was a necessary step before the full HPSCIG was translated into Spanish for a larger bilingual study. Twenty Mexican American women identified 232 self-care actions they took to promote well-being as they defined it. More than 81% of the self-care actions were performed to meet the universal self-care requisites, 11% were performed to meet the developmental requisites of middle-age, and 2% were performed to meet health deviation self-care requisites. Six percent of the actions could not be classified using the theoretical coding scheme. Inherent in the study were questions about the congruence and relevance of self-care as a concept in this population. The findings support the use of the HPSCIG with healthy, middle-aged Mexican American women.
This column serves as a tribute to Dorothea Orem's work and focuses on her leadership in the development of nursing science and nursing theory. Nurse scholars give a picture of Orem's contributions over her life and reflections about the future of nursing and healthcare.
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