Helping methods
• Acting for or doing for another
• Guiding and directing
• Providing physical or psychological support
• Providing and maintaining an environment that supports personal development
• Teaching (Orem, 2001)
Basic conditioning factors
Basic conditioning factors condition or affect the value of the therapeutic self-care demand and/or the self-care agency of an individual at particular times and under specific circumstances.
Ten factors have been identified:
• Age
• Gender
• Developmental state
• Health state
• Pattern of living
• Health care system factors • Family system factors
• Sociocultural factors
• Availability of resources
• External environmental factors
Use of empirical evidence
As a practical science, nursing knowledge is developed to inform nursing practice. Orem (2001) stated that “nursing is practical endeavor, but it is practical endeavor engaged in by persons who have specialized theoretic nursing knowledge with developed capabilities to put this knowledge to work in concrete situations of nursing practice” (p. 161). The provision of nursing care occurs in concrete situations.
The conceptual elements and the specific theories of the SCDNT are abstractions about the features common to all nursing practice situations.