NCM 102

• Nursing evolves from the Latin word Nutrix, which means to nourish or to cherish.
• Traditional female roles of wife, mother, daughter, and sister have always included the care and nurturing of other family members.
• Nursing is the diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems.
• Florence Nightingale defined nursing early 150 years ago as “as the act of utilizing the environment of the patient to assist him in his recovery” (Nightingale, 1860/1969).
• “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 peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had necessary strength, will or knowledge, and to do this in such a way to help him gain independence as rapidly possible” (Henderson, 19996).
• Nursing is a profession relating to work that needs special skills and qualifications.
• The practice of nursing is controlled from within the profession through the state boards of nursing and professional nursing organizations.
• The delivery of telehealth care includes other health disciplines in addition to physicians and nurses.
• The population is shifting from rural to urban settings, signaling an increased need for nursing related to problems caused by pollution and by the effects on the environment of concentrations of people.
• Telenursing continues to grow, especially in home health care and in rural communities.
• Demography is the study of population, including statistics about distribution by age and place of residence, mortality (death), and morbidity (incidence of disease).
• Most nursing services are now provided in urban settings.
• From demographic data, the needs of the population for nursing services can be assessed.
• Nurses engaged in telenursing practice continue to use the nursing process to provide care to clients, but they do so using technologies such as the Internet, computers, telephones, video teleconferencing, and telemonitoring equipment.
• Telenursing is the use of telecommunications and information technology to provide nursing practice at a distance.
• Nursing as a profession, is committed to recognise its own unparalleled body of knowledge vital to nursing practice - nursing science.
• Nursing is a unique discipline and is separate from medicine.
• Nursing has its own body of knowledge on which delivery of care is based.
• Preventing illness is the goal of illness prevention programs, which aim to maintain optimal health by preventing disease.
• In the role of communicator, nurses identify client problems and then communicate these verbally or in writing to other members of the health care team.
• Nurses also teach unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) to whom they delegate care, and they share their expertise with other nurses and health professionals.
• A client advocate acts to protect the client, representing the client’s needs and wishes to other health professionals, such as relaying the client’s request for information to the health care provider.
• As a teacher, the nurse helps clients learn about their health and the health care procedures they need to perform to restore or maintain their health.
• The quality of a nurse’s communication is an important factor in nursing care.
• Various specialty nursing organisations have further developed specific standards of nursing practice for their areas.
• A client is a person who engages the advice or services of another who is qualified to provide service.
• Nurses provide care for three types of clients: individuals, families, and communities.
• Restoring health focuses on the ill client, extending from early detection of disease through helping a client during the recovery period.
• The caregiver role includes activities that assist the client physically and psychologically, while preventing the client’s dignity.
• Standards of practice describe the responsibilities for which nurses are accountable.
• A profession is characterized by the use of standardized knowledge that has three components: (1) an action taken based on underlying basic knowledge or discipline, (2) practical knowledge to solve every day’s problems, and (3) the knowledge based on skills and attitudes to serve to the clients.
• Communication is integral to all nursing roles, and nurses communicate with the client, support persons, other health professionals, and people in the community.
• Wellness, defined broadly as the actualization of human potential, is promoted by nurses in both healthy and ill clients.
• Establishing and implementing standards of practice are major functions of a professional organisation.
• Professional values represent what is important to someone and are desirable to an individual.
• The nursing profession's body of knowledge is generated through research and theory building, and is rapidly accumulating.
• The nursing profession has its own code of ethics which articulates its social responsibility and serves as a guide for its members.
• These values are acquired during socialization into nursing from codes of ethics, experiences, mentors and peers.
• The nurse is prepared and authorized to engage in the general scope of nursing practice, including the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and care of physically ill, mentally ill, and disabled people of all ages and in all health care and other community settings.
• The nurse is prepared and authorized to be involved in research.