Self-care requirements for activity and rest: an Orem nursing focus.

According to Orem's self-care deficit nursing theory, helping people to maintain a balance between activity and rest (a universal self-care requisite) is a legitimate concern of nursing. The meaning of activity and rest, the requirements and potential measures for meeting this self-care requisite, and factors that might influence the process are explored. Criteria for determining a need for nursing, guides for a nursing clinical assessment, and guides for nursing action are suggested as potential ways to assist persons to meet the action demands associated with this self-care requisite.