Background:

Nursing theories contribute to the development of the identity of the nursing profession and promote its expansion as a science and a discipline, pointing to the relevance of conducting theoretical studies in nursing.

Objectives:

To analyze the utility of Orem’s general self-care theory and describe its structural components based on Meleis’ model for theory analysis.

Main topics under analysis:

A descriptive-reflective study was conducted using the criteria for analyzing utility and describing the structural components of the self-care deficit nursing theory. The description of the structural components involved the analysis of concepts (abstract-concrete dimension, degree of generality, and variable/non-variable dimension), assumptions (explicit or implicit), and propositions (existence, explanation/relational, reversible, deterministic, stochastic, sequential, coexisting, sufficient, conditional/contingent, necessary, or substitutable). In the analysis of the utility of a theory for practice, this study sought to answer the questions posed by Meleis.

Conclusion:

The application of Meleis’ model for theory analysis confirmed the utility of Orem’s self-care deficit nursing theory in nursing practice.

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