The impact of Dorothea E. Orem's life and work: an interview with Orem scholars.

This column serves as a tribute to Dorothea Orem's work and focuses on her leadership in the development of nursing science and nursing theory. Nurse scholars give a picture of Orem's contributions over her life and reflections about the future of nursing and healthcare.

Orem's self-care deficit nursing theory: pediatric asthma as exemplar.

Asthma is the most frequent reason for preventable hospital admissions among children regardless of race or socioeconomic status. Since hospitalizations are preventable, a reasonable assumption is that parents are not optimally managing their child's asthma. Using Orem's self-care deficit nursing theory, 14 conditions were uncovered in the pediatric asthma literature that influence development of competency by parents. Twelve of the 14 antecedent conditions are influenced by factors partly or completely controlled by the healthcare system. Healthcare system gaps associated with asthma symptom control have come to light through the articulation of the pediatric asthma literature and Orem's theory.

Reflections on nursing practice science: the nature, the structure, and the foundation of nursing sciences.

In preparation for the self-care deficit nursing theory conference to be held in Ulm, Germany in 2004, Dorothea Orem and I reflected on the development of nursing science. Orem drafted this paper which I edited. The International Orem Society is sharing this paper with Nursing Science Quarterly as presented to the conference as a memorial to Orem and her work.

The effects of low-speed swimming following exhaustive exercise on metabolic recovery and swimming performance in brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis).

Experiments were conducted to determine whether low-speed swimming during recovery from exhaustive exercise improved both metabolic recovery and performance during a swimming challenge. For these experiments, brook trout were allowed to recover from exhaustive exercise for 2 h while swimming at 0, 0.5, 1.0, or 1.5 body length (BL) s(-1) or allowed to recover from exhaustive exercise for 1, 2, or 3 h while swimming at 1.0 BL s(-1). At the appropriate interval, either (i) muscle and blood samples were removed from the fish or (ii) fish were assessed for performance (i.e., fatigue time) during a fixed-interval swimming test. Low-speed swimming during recovery from exhaustive exercise resulted in significantly longer fatigue times compared with fish recovering in still water (i.e., 0 BL s(-1)). However, swimming during recovery did not expedite recovery of muscle lactate or blood variables (e.g., lactate, osmolarity, glucose). These observations suggest that metabolic recovery and subsequent swimming performance may not be directly linked and that other factors play a role in swimming recovery in brook trout.

Explication of the nature and meaning of nursing diagnosis.

The purpose of this article is to stimulate discussion and further investigation about the nature and meaning of nursing diagnosis. Premises that place nursing diagnosis within the framework of self-care deficit nursing theory are presented. Also presented are propositions about nurses as diagnosticians, the process features of nursing diagnosis, and propositions about nursing diagnostic questions. The intellectual/cognitive processes essential to nursing diagnosis are discussed and investigative questions for nursing diagnostic stages proposed.