Definitions of nursing seem most similar in kind to definitions of social work - another coordinating and "fill in the gap" role. Both of these seem to aim for whole life harmony, as opposed to focusing on just one aspect of a problem. In contrast, definitions of medicine, physical therapy, respiratory therapy, etc are much more focused.
However, these idealistic definitions seem to ignore the reality of many nursing roles, where the nurse doesn't have the time or resources to do more than the tasks at hand. The inpatient acute care nurse is focused on keeping the patient alive and avoiding complications, bottom line. Bottomline for school nurses is immunization checks, mandatory health screenings, tracking students with med problems and taking care of incidental illnesses and injuries. Bottomline for dialysis nurses is getting the patient dialysed without incident. Teaching, therapeutic listening, helping improve quality of life, etc all end up at the bottom of the list and often are never gotten to.
I'm not saying nursing should throw out it's idealism. I think all health personnel should be encouraged to consider the whole patient and not just treat them as a disease or a problem to solve. Anyway, I find these discrepancies in the ideals of nursing versus the realities of nursing interesting. Anyone else have thoughts on this?:hatparty:
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Definitions of nursing by nursing organizations:
Nursing is...the use of clinical judgement in the provision of care to enable people to improve, maintain, or recover health, to cope with health problems, and to achieve the best possible quality of life, whatever their disease or disability, until death. (RCN)
Nursing is the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and abilities, prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of suffering through the diagnosis and treatment of human response, and advocacy in the care of individuals, families, communities, and populations. (Nursing's Social Policy Statement, Second Edition, 2003)
Definitions of Social Work (google define:social work)
# Social work" means engaging in psychosocial evaluation and intervention, including therapy, to the extent permitted by the licensure provisions of this chapter, to effect a change in the feelings, attitudes and behavior of a client, whether an individual, group or community. "Social work" also means engaging in community organization, social planning, administration and research. [1985, c. 736, §2 (new).]
janus.state.me.us/legis/statutes/32/title32sec7001-A.html
# Professional services of a social worker aimed at the promotion of the social functioning of individuals, families, groups and communities.
http://www.polity.org.za/html/govdoc...al97gloss.html
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