Empirical Indicators

Sample Answer

Empirical Indicators

Nursing knowledge helps in patient care and it is obtained from nursing science, nursing experience, and personal experiences. A component key to nursing knowledge is empirical indicators. Empirical indicators refer to actual instruments, experimental conditions or procedures followed when assessing or observing concepts linked to middle-range theory (Ryan et al., 2019). Empirical indicators offer data that helps in testing the middle-range theories. The indicators offer data that one can calculate as quantitative scores or sort into qualitative categories. The purpose of this paper is to use empirical indicators in line with the Dorothea Orem Self-Care theory.

Orem Self Care Theory

Self-care theory was coined by Dorothea Orem as she tried to improve the quality of nursing in general hospitals in her state. Nurses use the theory to guide and improve practice since it aligns with other validated theories, laws, and principles (Blok, 2017). The theory covers self-care, which is a practice of activities initiated or performed by an individual to maintain life, health, and wellbeing. It also revolves around self-care agency, which denotes the human ability to engage in self-care that is dictated by factors like age, health, developmental state, resources, social-cultural experience, and life experience. The main focus of the theory is self-care, preventing illness and promoting independence (Blok, 2017). The theory points out the need for nursing care because it projects that not everyone can provide their care. Disabled patients have to receive specialized assistance to meet their needs and optimize their functionality.

Theory Analysis

Orem’s theory provides nursing practice with a comprehensive base. It specifies when nursing care is needed and can be applied in different nursing practice settings. Nursing care is essential when one has a limitation or deficit that makes it hard to maintain self-care. The theory premise is that individuals can take care of themselves and their dependents (Younas, 2017). The theory is linked to research, clinical practice and nursing goals. The theory can be used in a research program to establish self-care behaviors and self-care requisites that match a specified clinical population.

Applicability of Orem’s Theory

The concepts of self-care theory are clearly defined which makes it easier to identify empirical indicators for each concept. The theory is readily applied because it has well defined theoretical entities that can be easily measured (Younas, 2017). Several instruments have been developed and validate and are used to measure aspects of self-care theory. Researchers have managed to operationalize concepts in an empirically testable manner. An example is the Community Care Deficit Nursing Model that is used in community care settings. The model signifies that Orem’s theory has a theoretical framework that is applicable in various practice settings and hypotheses that can be derived from various nursing concepts stipulated in the theory.

Practice Setting Example

An ideal project is the identification of self-care deficits and self-care abilities among hospitalized patients with heart failure. The project would offer valuable information that can be followed to come up with an educational plan on the topic as well as results that generate hypotheses to enhance nursing knowledge (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). The proposed study will assess whether a relationship exists between the heart failure self-care deficits and quality of life indicators for patients suffering from heart failure. The hypothesis that will guide the study is; increased self-care abilities improve the quality of life of patients suffering from heart failure.

The project is selected because, annually, there are 1, 084,000 hospitalizations linked to heart failure. The hospitalizations require 34.8 billion dollars, which is a significant healthcare cost (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). Additionally, proper treatment and management of heart failure can reduce healthcare expenditures as well as mortality rates. Reduced self-care abilities result in frequent hospitalizations and poor quality of life. An educational plan would help the patients learn about self-care which would enable them to control their lives. The patients can learn ways to take care of themselves and follow the prescribed treatment which would enhance their functional capacity as well as their quality of life.

The study will be guided by the self-care theory. The framework is selected because the variables and hypotheses of the study relate to the concepts of the theory. The study variables are a nursing agency, therapeutic self-care demands, self-care requisites, self-care deficit, self-care agency and self-care (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). The theory will help in identifying the heart failure self-care deficits that affect the quality of life. Once the self-care deficits are identified, it will be easier to define self-requisites that should be addressed to foster self-care agency in patients with heart failure.

The study will have 30 participants with heart failure and it will adopt a quantitative, cross-sectional research design. The empirical indicator that will help in the study is the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) scale. The scale assesses self-care, self-care management and self-care maintenance (Hagran & Fakharany, 2015). Additionally, the study will assess the quality of life using the Minnesota Living with Heart Failure (MHLIF) questionnaire. The questionnaire offers scores for physical and emotional dimensions as well as a total score. Once the data is obtained from the participants, correlations will be computed to determine if there is a relationship between self-care maintenance, self-care management, self-care confidence, total self-care scores the physical quality of life, emotional quality of life, and total of quality of life scores.

Conclusion

Empirical indicators refer to instruments, experiments condition or procedures followed when testing the middle-range theories. An example is Orem’s self-care theory whose aim is to prevent illness and promote independence. The theory pints out when nursing care is needed and can be used in research to establish self-care behaviors and self-care requisites that align with a clinical population. Self-care theory has well defined theoretical entities that make it easier to identify empirical indicators.

The concepts have been transformed into empirically testable aspects like the Community Care Deficit Nursing Model. For the current practice, a proposed study would be the identification of self-care abilities among heart failure patients. The patients would answer the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index (SCHFI) scale to establish their self-care abilities as well as the Living with Heart Failure (MHLIF) questionnaire to establish their quality of life. The data obtained would be correlated to establish a relationship and eventually generate an education plan that addresses patient needs and enhances nursing knowledge.

References

• Blok, A. C. (2017). A middle‐range explanatory theory of self‐management behavior for collaborative research and practice. In Nursing forum, 52(2), 138-146.
• Hagran, A., & Fakharany, A. (2015). Critique of Orem’s theory. The Journal of Middle East and North Africa Sciences, 1(5), 12-17.
• Ryan, P., Weiss, M., & Papanek, P. (2019). A substruction approach to assessing the theoretical validity of measures. Journal of Nursing Measurement, 27(1), 126-145.
• Younas, A. (2017). A foundational analysis of Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory and evaluation of its significance for nursing practice and research. Creative Nursing, 23(1), 13-23.