Let's start from the beginning, What is nursing?
The challenge to
find a simple, workable definition of
nursing remains. It’s long history and wide
diversity of setting and action are
proof that it is a flexible and dynamic
activity, therefore complex to define. Castledine elaborated a simple definition based on nurturing back in 1994: "Nursing is nurturing people
with their health-related experiences,
problems and concerns".
He believed that there is more to the nature of
nursing than any definition can encompass.
Other authors like Nancy Roper have used personal experiences to define nursing. She used three nursing procedures to
illustrate different points: giving medicines as an example of the dynamic nature of a
procedure over time and how it needs to
respond to increased knowledge from
research; how serving meals, on the recommendation
of non-nurse researchers,
was designated a non-nursing duty with
disastrous results for some patients; and
how the many interpretations of the nil by
mouth regimen have caused malnutrition
in postoperative patients.
She states that beliefs about what constitutes nursing
are not static, nursing policy
responds to changes in a wide range of
interfacing areas but she is convinced that there is a
nurse-initiated core that concerns
patients’ problems with everyday
living activities. She believes that it is the core that enables
nurses, even in their diverse practices, to
speak with a united voice, particularly to
those in power, so that nursing will be
adequately financed and resourced to provide
an ever-evolving, high quality, cost effective
service.
In the table below there are the definitions provided by different official organizations and search engines nowadays:
Wikipedia:
"The profession or practice of providing care for the sick and infirm."
Sources:
-Castledine, G. (1994) A definition of nursing based on nurturing. British Journal of Nursing, 3(3), 134-135.
-Castledine, G. (1994) Nursing can never have a unified theory. British Journal of Nursing, 4(3), 180-181.
-Roper, N. (1994) Definition of nursing: 1. British Journal of Nursing, 3(7), 355-357.
-Roper, N. (1994) Definition of nursing:2. British Journal of Nursing, 3(9), 460-462.
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing
-https://www.google.es/#q=nursing+definition
-http://www.icn.ch/who-we-are/icn-definition-of-nursing/
-http://www.who.int/topics/nursing/en/
-https://www.rcn.org.uk/professionaldevelopment/publications/pub-004768
