Defining Moments

In 1967, Dr. Sarah E. Allison ’53 (left), gathered a team of experts, including eminent nursing theorist Dorothea E. Orem, to conceptualize the first nursing research center at Hopkinsthe Center for Experimentation and Development in Nursing at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Orem collaborated with the center from 1968-1974, testing models of her Self-Care Deficit Theory about patients’ abilities to perform self-care and the nursing care required. Orem recently donated materials documenting the theory’s origins, development, and implementation to Hopkins’ Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives. The collection is supported through a grant from the Sarah E. Allison Foundation.

The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions