User:MattKingston/Nursing

Nursing is a profession focused on assisting individuals, families and communities in attaining, re-attaining and maintaining optimal health, wellness, and functioning. Nurses practice in a wide range of settings from hospital to visiting people in their homes. It is a universal phenomenon, appearing in some form in every culture. Nursing is the most diverse of all healthcare professions.

Definitions of nursing

Because of the great variety of roles that a nurse fills, the profession has always had difficulty defining exactly what nursing is. Florence Nightingale said "I use the word nursing for want of a better. It has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices. It ought to signify the proper use of fresh air, light, warmth, cleanliness, quiet, and the proper selection and administration of diet--all at the least expense of vital power to the patient." The American Nurses' Association (1980) has defined nursing as "the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems." Modern definitions of nursing define it as a science and an art that focuses on quality of life as defined by persons and families. Nursing is not only concerned about health and functioning but with quality of living and dying, lived experience, and universal lived experiences of health.

Nursing theories

Like other maturing disciplines, nursing has developed different theories that are aligned with diverging philosophical beliefs and paradigms or worldviews. Nursing theories help nurses to direct their activities in order to accomplish specific goals with people. Nursing is a knowledge based discipline committed to the betterment of humankind. Just as medical diagnoses help in the planning, implementing, and evaluation of medical care, Nursing diagnoses help in the planning, implementing, and evaluation of nursing care.

Nurses believe that the nursing profession is an essential part of the society from which it has grown. The authority for the practice of nursing is based upon a social contract that delineates professional rights and responsibilities as well as mechanisms for public accountability.