nursing

Florence Nightingale, in her Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not, defined nursing as having “charge of the personal health of somebody … and what nursing has to do … is to put the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.” The philosophy has been restated and refined since 1859, but the essence is the same. In the words of nursing theorist Virginia Henderson, nurses help people, sick or well, to do those things needed for health or a peaceful death that people would do on their own if they had the strength, will, or knowledge. The most current definition that reflects the evolution of professional nursing is from the 2003 edition of ANA’s Nursing’s Social Policy Statement:

Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations.

The human response…

1. What defines nursing and sets it apart from other health care professions, particularly medicine with which it has long been considered part and parcel? It is nurses’ focus – in theory and practice – on the response of the individual and the family to actual or potential health problems. Nurses are educated to be attuned to the whole person, not just the unique presenting health problem. While a medical diagnosis of an illness may be fairly circumscribed, the human response to a health problem may be much more fluid and variable and may have a great effect on the individual’s ability to overcome the initial medical problem. It is often said that physicians cure, and nurses care. In what some describe as a blend of physiology and psychology, nurses build on their understanding of the disease and illness process to promote the restoration and maintenance of health in their clients.

Nurses’ broad-based education and holistic focus positions them as the logical network of providers on which to build a true health care system for the future. An acknowledged realization that individuals have considerable responsibility for their personal health has driven an increasing recognition that there is a professional group, whose focus is education and practice, that can facilitate individuals efforts to reach their fullest health potential. This profession is that of registered nurses.