Self-care, according to Dorothea E. Orem (Dorothea E. Orem), is viewed as the act of a person initiating and accomplishing activities for himself/herself in maintaining life, health, and well-being. Orem (Dorothea E. Orem), who developed the self-care theory, sees "self" as a person as a whole, including not only physical but also psychological and spiritual needs, and "care" as the entire activity that allows a person to maintain life and create a normal way for himself. According to Levin (L.S. Levin,) self-care is not compliance with how well a person can follow instructions, but rather, it is a process where the person feels his/her own health needs, takes action on his/her own, uses primary, familiar resources that are not secondary or tertiary care, and uses his/her own will to protect his/her own health. The importance of self-reliance is not compliance, but the sense of self-reliance that the individual feels the need for his/her own health and takes action on his/her own.
The self-care model uses self-care theory,nursingphenomenon in a form that is easily applied to practice. The self-care model shows the balance between self-care need (self-care requirements) and self-care capacity (agency), and the level to which nursing care is provided, depending on the degree of self-care deficiency resulting from the imbalance,(a) patientand nursing system models have been used to illustrate the roles and collaboration of nursing professionals. The self-care model is widely used in each clinical area, with modifications and refinements as needed.

References
(1) Dorothea E. Orem (Author)/Toki Onodera (Translator): Orem's Theory of Nursing - Basic Concepts in Nursing Practice, 4th edition, Igaku Shoin, 2005.
(2) Connie M. Dennis (Author)/Toki Onodera (Translator): Introduction to Orem Nursing Theory: An Approach to Self-Care Deficient Nursing Theory, Igaku Shoin, 1999.
(3) Karen Glanz, Frances Marcus Lewis, Barbara K. Rimer (eds.)/Tomofumi Sone, Motoi Watanabe, Tomoyuki Yuasa, et al. (translators): Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research and Practice, Igaku Shoin, 2006.