Nursing theories guide the practices of the care process. In
this study, it was thought that Orem’s self-care deficit nursing
theory (SCDNT) could be a useful guide in diabetes selfmanagement
education to improve the self-care behavior of
a diabetes patient, and an attempt was made at indicating its
applied use. We recommend that use of the SCDNT in diabetes
self-management education be practised in a randomized
controlled trial.