Nursing

Nursing is a healthcare profession focused on the detail-oriented care of individuals, families, and communities in attaining, maintaining, and recovering optimal health and functioning. A nurse assesses, plans, implements and evaluates care independently of medical staff (doctors), and typically provides anything from basic triage care to assistance in serious trauma care and surgery.

Modern definitions of nursing describe it as a science and an art that focuses on promoting quality of life as defined by populations, communities, families, and individuals, throughout their life experiences from birth through the end of life. Nursing also focus on health promotion; prevention of illness.

Nursing comes in various forms in every culture, although the definition of the term and the practice of nursing has changed greatly over time. The former being known as a wet nurse and the latter being known as a dry nurse. In the 15th century, this developed into the idea of looking after or advising another, not necessarily meaning a woman looking after a child. Nursing has continued to develop in this latter sense, although the idea of nourishing in the broadest sense refers in modern nursing to promoting quality of life.

Prior to the foundation of modern nursing, nuns and the military often provided nursing-like services. The religious and military roots of modern nursing remain in evidence today in many countries. For example: in Britain, senior female nurses are known as ‘‘sisters’’. It was during time of war that a significant development in nursing history arose when Florence Nightingale, working to improve conditions of soldiers in the Crimean War, laid the foundation stone of professional nursing with the principles summarised in the book Notes on Nursing.