|
COPYRIGHT 2004 Jannetti Publications, Inc.
Self-care, as a theoretical base of practice in caring for patients with interstitial cystitis (IC), has been suggested as a model of holistic health. Those living with IC look to the nurse/health care practitioner for intervention and care. Nurses operating from the self-care nursing framework may find this model useful in caring for patients with IC. These patients are educated by the nurse regarding preventative measures, interventions, and advanced treatments and therefore may be in a better position to participate in achieving the goal of optimal health. Self-care nursing helps the client to care for themselves through education, resource acquisition, and role-modeling positive behavioral outcomes.
**********
Caring for clients with varying diagnoses, multiple stressors, and complex societal backgrounds is a constant challenge for the nurse and health care practitioner. Serving clients in need requires a framework or format to guide nursing care. Coordinating care for clients around their needs, with the optimal goal of independence, remains central to the theoretical models of self-care. Nursing is defined as an art and a science in which there lies an interactive relationship between the client and the nurse, whereby the nurse serves the client. This relationship denotes a caring bond between the nurse and the client, specifically for those with less ability to provide for their own self-care.
Self-care is defined by Orem (1956) as a situation whereby the client is dependent upon the nurse until the deficits within the client's reality are diminished or removed and the independence of the client can be brought forward. According to Orem:
"Nursing is an art through which the nurse, the practitioner of nursing, gives specialized assistance to persons with disabilities of such a character that more than ordinary assistance is necessary to meet daily needs for self-care and to intelligently participate in medical care they are receiving from the physician. The art of nursing is practiced by 'doing for' the person with the disability, by 'helping him to do for himself' and/or by 'helping him to learn how to do for himself.' Nursing is also practiced by helping a capable person from the patient's family or a friend of the patient to learn how 'to do for' the patient. Nursing the patient is thus a practical and a didactic art" (p. 85).
Nurses are in partnership with the client as they work in a practical manner to eliminate the deficits plaguing...
Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.
|
Bookmark this article
Print this article
Link to this article
Email this article
Digg It!
Add to del.icio.us
RSS
