The two selected nursing theories include Jean Watson theory of care and Dorethea Orem theory of self-care. According to Watson, caring is the nursing moral ideal wherein the end is preservation, enhancement, and protection of human dignity. The center of caring according to Watson is represented by ten carative factors, with the most important ones being compassion, love, and kindness (Pajnkihar, Stiglic & Vrbnjak, 2017). Unlike Watson theory that focuses on nurses care for others or patients, Orem theory centers on self-care. Orem is based on assumption that people ought to be self –reliant and liable for their own care. According to Orem, nurses should deliberately perform or select actions to assist groups or individuals under their care, to change or maintain conditions in their environment and themselves (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015).
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Watson theory can be used to enhance behavioral changes among nurses by teaching them how to improve their relationship with patients by embracing kindness, love and compassion, by considering their ethical and moral values in nursing, and by being committed in enhancing human dignity, respecting people’s culture, and embracing beliefs of the patients (Pajnkihar, Stiglic & Vrbnjak, 2017). Orem theory can be used to change patients’ behavior to focus more on personal care or self-care, by adapting a healthy lifestyle, minimizing health risks, and promoting good health, even in the family. It can also be used to change nursing behaviors from curative care to preventive care, where nurses teaches patients to focus on maintain good health to avoid diseases, rather than caring for them while they are sick, even from preventable causes (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015).
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The advantage of employing Watson theory is that it enhances the development of a healthy relationship between the nurse and the patient. This helps in building patient’s trust toward the nurse. Development of trust-based relationship makes it easy for the nurse to develop a treatment plan with the patient, and the patient to follow the treatment plan without fail. It also makes it easy to understand patients’ cultural beliefs and values that can influence patient’s treatment. A nurse is thus able to offer the best treatment plan that caters for all patients’ needs. This enhances patient satisfaction and increase in chances for high patient outcome (Pajnkihar, Stiglic & Vrbnjak, 2017). The main disadvantage in Watson theory is that patients become so reliant on nurses for care, making it hard for a patient to develop self-care skills. Watson theory concentrates more on nursing care, such that it forgets the aspect of self-care. Without self-care, patients may find it hard to maintain acquired good health after they are discharged, which can result to readmission.
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Orem main advantage is that it helps in maintain good health by enhancing self-care and hence eliminating chances for developing preventable health conditions. By encouraging patients to embrace self-care, Orem ensures that every person is responsible for his or her health, and hence maintaining a more healthy population, that when they have to depend on nurses to maintain good health (Hagran, & Fakharany, 2015). The main disadvantage is that for effective development of personal care, nurses must have effective teaching skills. Patient must learn the most important aspects of self-care, mostly based on the patient’s health condition. A nurse must thus be patient in training each patient on the necessary self-care measures despite of their diverse health needs. This can be tiresome and quite involving to nurses. Lack of clear understanding on measures to employ to enhance self-care, especially for patients with unique condition can result to fatal or severe medical adversaries. Thus a nurse must ensure that a patient can really manage self-care without intervention or supervision (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). There are no ethical issues associated with the two theories. However, doing contrary to those theories may provoke ethical issues associated with poor nursing measures.
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