Dorothea Elizabeth Orem 

(July 15, 1914 – June 22, 2007) was one of America’s

foremost nursing theorists who developed the Self-Care Deficit Nursing
Theory, also known as the Orem Model of Nursing.

Her theory defined Nursing as “The act of assisting others in the provision and
management of self-care to maintain or improve human functioning at the home
level of effectiveness.” It 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.”

Dorothea Orem was born on July 15, 1914, in Baltimore, Maryland. Her father was
a construction worker, and her mother is a homemaker. She was the youngest
among two daughters.

In the early 1930s, she earned her nursing diploma from the Providence Hospital
School of Nursing in Washington, D.C. She completed her Bachelor of Science in
Nursing in 1939 and her Master’s of Science in Nursing in 1945, both from the
Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Dorothea Orem attended Seton High School in Baltimore and graduated in 1931.
She received a diploma from the Providence Hospital School of Nursing in
Washington, D.C., in 1934. She went on to the Catholic University of America to
earn a B.S. in Nursing Education in 1939 and an M.S. in Nursing Education in
1945.

She had a distinguished career in nursing. She earned several Honorary

Doctorate degrees. She was given Honorary Doctorates of Science from
Georgetown University in 1976 and Incarnate Word College in 1980. She was
given an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Illinois Wesleyan University
in 1988 and a Doctorate Honoris Causa from the University of Missouri in
Columbia in 1998.