WHAT IS NURSING

WHAT IS NURSING? HISTORY 1931  Florence Ambler wrote:  “The changing of the nurse from a mere automaton to a skillful assistant to the physician..”  1940  Mary Sewall wrote:  “..there are recognized boundless opportunities for utilization of woman’s special gifts in raising the level of the social order through the medium of nursing.”  Websters Dictionary To Nurse: To foster or cherish (to nurse ones talent), to treat or handle with ardent care (to nurse one’s nest egg), to bring up, to train or nurture, to clasp or handle carefully or fondly (to nurse a memento), to preserve (to nurse a drink). Nurse suggests attendance and service; the opposite suggests neglect Taber’s  A nurse is an individual who provides health care, distinguishing among the different types of nurses: nurse  Community health nurse  Flight, general duty  Graduate, head, licensed practical,  Private duty, registered, school, anestetist,  Midwife and practitioner  Charge Definitions in the Law: Legal definitions of nursing care are contained in nurse practice acts and exist to protect the public and protect the title.  The practice acts though regulatory, do not protect the nurse’s practice from a charge of practicing medicine without a license or malpractice.  Early Law Protected the title, but did not define the practice  It permitted anyone to perform legally the functions of a nurse for compensation  Only licensed individuals could use the RN title.  In 1907, an amendment to the nurse practice act in North Carolina created a Board of Appeals for nurses denied certification.  The Board consisted of physicians, and their decisions were binding to the nursing Board.  Licensure Licensure is usually sought by a profession (i.e., medicine) to protect its own interests.  Therefore, the business of defining the work of a profession with the law, is a political act.  But what is Nursing? New York defined nursing as:  “diagnosing and treating human response to actual and potential health problems through such services as case finding, health teaching, health counseling, and provision of care supportive to the restorative of life and well-being..”  By 1990: The ANA changed the language of the definition of nursing as “the performance of services for compensation in the provision of diagnosis and treatment of human responses to health or illness”  The change here is from HEALTH PROBLEMS to HEALTH AND ILLNESS, which broadens nursing practice.  The legal definitions of Nursing are Political in nature, and based on Theory or Concepts. FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE OK, but WHAT IS NURSING? Florence Nightingale:  “a nurse means any person in charge of the personal health of another, and that nursing ought to assist the reparative process. Neither (nursing or medicine) can do anything but remove obstruction; neither can cure; nature alone cures. Nursing puts the patient in the best condition for nature to act upon him.”  VIRGINIA HENDERSON Virginia Henderson:  “The unique function of the nurse is to assist the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health or its recovery (or to a peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge.”   Even after over 100 years of discussing, Nursing still remains a mystery to those outside nursing. This we do know: Nursing involves the care of the sick or the potentially sick, and the tending of the environment within which care happens.  Nurses deal with the most basic of human needs:   Birth  Death  And everything in between We get our hands dirty, our uniforms stained, and our psyches eroded by daily contact with humans in need.  With our hands and eyes we touch the lives of others, and are admitted to the privacy of their inner space without even asking.  We are scientists, psychologists, pharmacists, biochemists, social workers, experts in data analysis, managers, and administrators to name a few.  WHAT IS NURSING? Nursing does not defy definition, it is simply too huge.  Nursing is changing and continually evolving.  If there is confusion, it could be because nurses are everywhere and doing everything.  NURSES DO IT ALL!