The purpose of this article is to review self-regulation theory and how it can be applied to healthcare practice to improve patient outcomes. According to Johnson (1997), more than 25 years of research have influenced the development of self-regulation theory, which concerns the management of healthcare experiences. Health problems have moved from acute to chronic, and personal behaviors have been identified as being linked to over half of society's chronic health problems (Ryan & Sawin, 2009). As the modern nurse strives to provide specialized care and improve patient outcomes, the use of nursing theory continues to gain importance. This theory explains how patients use specific types of information to cope with health events, thus providing a rationale for selecting information that may benefit patients. The concept of self-regulation has been part of nursing practice in a circumlocutionary way for years. It has most commonly been referred to as self-management, creating considerable ambiguity and overlap in definitions for that term and self-regulation (SR). For the purposes of this article, these terms imply that people follow self-set goals introduced by their doctor. Jean E. Johnson (1997), a registered nurse and graduate professor at the University of Rochester School of Nursing, is credited with developing self-regulation theory (SRT) in the late 1990s. It was years of contributions and interactions with his professional colleagues, students and participants in his “Stress and Coping” group that contributed to the development of this theory. It has been identified, and is true today, that patients are expected to play a... central role..., activation and use of goals, detection and implementation of discrepancies, self-evaluation and that self-evaluation monitoring is central to self-regulation. The largest group of healthcare workers are nurses. Implementing this theory into today's nursing practice is not an unrealistic task as it has been happening at one level or another for many years. Because modern nurses must provide care to individuals, families, groups, and communities of people, educating them and expecting them to use SRT will provide overall better outcomes for patients. Perhaps the practice of wanting the best for patients is actually an inherent quality of nurses. Baumeister, Vohs, and Tice (2007) argue and argue that self-regulation is a homeostatic process such as maintaining a constant body temperature and that with appropriate indicators/resources this can be achieved.