Researchers and clinicians believe that self-care management (actions to take care of one’s self) is the appropriated modality of care for people with most types of chronic diseases. However, these persons must be reliable, capable, and sufficiently responsible to take care of themselves (Anderson, 1996; Clark & Dodge, 1999; McCauley, Courneya, Rudolph, Lox, 1994; Moon & Baker, 2000; Wang, 1997), and thus they need personal and environmental resources (e.g., knowledge about the disease and about self-care, social support, financial support, self-efficacy or belief in their capabilities to engage in self-care, and self-care agency or capabilities to engage in self-care). To that end, the purpose of this study was to synthesize knowledge about self-care management for chronic disease, identify factors that affect self-care, and expand existing theoretical models proposing a conceptual framework and research model to be tested in research and clinical practice. Combining constructs and/or concepts from Orem’s self-care and Bandura’s self-efficacy theories, and analysis of empirical studies the have analyzed the relationship among those concepts served as a foundation to develop a conceptual framework for chronic disease self-care management. Since a conceptual framework is at a very abstract level, a research model for diabetes self-care management (one of the many chronic diseases) was also design to test in research and be considered more directly applicable in clinical practice. Test of the conceptual framework using this research model for diabetes self-care management suggested that individuals who had diabetes knowledge and social support built up capabilities for self-care (self-care agency) and confidence in those capabilities (self-efficacy), forming a pattern of combination of factors, which led to better diabetes self-care management and glycemic control.
Session #1121 - Nursing Theory in Research and Practice
The 29th Annual MNRS Research Conference (April 1-4, 2005)