Meaning of Nursing 1

Meaning of Nursing

Jaymica Rose L. Dacquil

Saint Paul University Philippines

Meaning of Nursing 1

Abstract

Nursing is variously described as a profession, a discipline, an occupation. Throughout time,

there are various definitions, perceptions and theories of nursing emerging and defined by

different nursing theorists, nurse scholars and authors. In this paper, a review of literature from

several disciplines revealed the different definitions of nursing and nursology and the real

essence of nursing. It is revealed that nursing promotes health, prevents illness and rehabilitates

not just the sick and aged, but also to the well people. Caring is also discussed as the real essence

of nursing and it is an important behavior that disciplining a nurse’s act and teach them

commitment to win the patient and their significant other’ trust. It promotes the healing process,

prevents further illness, prolongs and saves lives. An overview of Patterson & Zderad’s theory in

nursology was discussed. The purpose of this paper is to compare and discuss the meaning of

nursing, its essence and the meaning of nursology from my personal definition to theorist and

author’s definition. A synthesis of the literature will be discussed first, then a comparison

thereafter.

Meaning of Nursing 1

Definition of Nursing

For the past years, there have been many different definitions and perceptions of what

nursing really means. Some negative perceptions have been related to gender stereotyping, low

academic standards, poor pay, and poor working conditions. Additionally, the media often

portrays nurses as sex objects that are submissive to the doctors. Yet on the positive side, nursing

has also been perceived as a caring, nurturing and compassionate profession that requires a great

deal of physical and emotional strength, patience, and knowledge.

Nursing is a profession with a specialized body of knowledge that draws from the social,

the behavioral and the physical sciences. Nursing is a unique profession because it addresses

responses of individuals and families to health promotion, health maintenance and health

problems. There are many philosophies and definitions of nursing.

According to Florence Nightingale, she defined nursing as ‘the act of utilizing the

environment of the patient to assist him in his recovery’ (Nightingale 1969 (1860)). Nightingale

considered a clean, well-ventilated and quiet environment essential for recovery. Often

considered the first nurse theorist, Nightingale raised the status of nursing through education.

Nurses were no longer untrained housekeepers but people educated in the care of the sick

(Berman et al, 2012).

Virginia Henderson was one of the first modern nurses to define nursing. The definition

she posed in 1966 was adopted by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in 1973 and still

holds wide appeal in the nursing profession. According to her, she defined nursing as assisting

the individual, sick or well, in the performance of those activities contributing to health, its

recovery, promoting quality of life or to a peaceful death that the client would perform unaided if

he or she had the necessary strength, will or knowledge. (Henderson, in Crisp & Taylor, 2009)

Meaning of Nursing 1

In 2002 the ICN updated the definition of nursing: Nursing encompasses autonomous and

collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well, and

in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of the

ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research,

participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and

education are also key nursing roles. (ICN, 2002)

According to American Nurses Association, 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 responses to actual or potential helath problems;

and advocacy in health care for individuals, families, communities, and populations. (ANA,

2012). This definition had a widespread effect, and we see its application in the language used in

nursing diagnoses today.

However, my personal definition of nursing is giving quality health care (physically,

emotionally, spiritually) not just to the sick and aged, but to those who are well. It is also the

promotion of health and prevention of illness. Nurses prolong life and nurture health of

individuals, families and communities. Nursing includes assessing the patient, planning,

implementing and evaluating the care they have provided.

Essence of Nursing

Nursing, perhaps more than any other health care profession, claims caring as

fundamental to its practice. A large number of people consider caring as one of essential aspects

of nursing, to be precise, caring is a necessary component of nursing.

Caring is a central element of nursing practice (Potter & Perry, 2001). Leininger (2001)

and Watson (1994) developed nursing theories that espouse the primacy of caring in nursing.

Meaning of Nursing 1

Madeleine Leininger subscribed to the central tenet that “care is the essence of nursing and the

central, dominant, and unifying focus of nursing” (Leininger 1991). Nightingale (1859) wrote

that nursing’s most important work is caring. Despite the wealth of ground covered in these

works the term “care”, is rarely defined as a theoretical concept in its own right and is often used

interchangeably with the term nursing (Gaut, 1983). Caring is the central and unifying focus of

the nursing profession. Leininger defines care/caring as those assistive, supportive, or facilitative

acts toward another individual with evident needs to improve their condition. This view of caring

as an act of doing something to help a person is shared by other authors and theorists, too. Caring

is a difficult topic to define as it is the feeling that display concern, empathy in satisfying the

physical, psychological, spiritual, cultural, social and emotional needs. Caring in the nursing

profession happens when a nurse have contact with a patient with hope and commitment as the

important parts. This can be achieved by being compassionate, loving, kind, warm, sensitive,

sympathetic, responsive, and considerate to others. (Welch & Leininger, 2002). Watson another

highly reputed and recognized researcher in the nursing field also makes a concept of caring as

the correct and most appropriate ultimate of nursing. This simple definition connects to the

aforementioned definition and has connections with that of individual center care that

accentuates on the importance of sensitivity-treating patients as persons and participating in

making of decisions. Benner, Tanner and Chesla (1996) also affirmed that caring is a primary

function of the nurse in their study of expertise in nursing. The American Nurses Association

(ANA) (2003) stated that an essential feature of professional nursing is the provision of a caring

relationship that facilitates health and healing. Yet nursing, as one of a multitude of health care

professions, does not have a monopoly on caring. Physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists,

and occupational therapists all have references to caring in their literature (Fjortoft & Zgarrick,

2003; McLeod, 2003; Ries, 2003; Sachs & Labovitz, 1994; Stiller, 2000; Wright & Carrese,

Meaning of Nursing 1

2001; Wright-St. Clair, 2001). Jean Watson views caring as the most valuable attribute nursing

has to offer to humanity, yet caring has received less emphasis than other aspects of nursing over

time. She believes that the disease might be cured but illness would still remain because without

caring, health is not fully attained. Caring is the essence of nursing and it connotes

responsiveness between the nurse and the patient (Watson, 2006). Valentine (1997) has suggested

that caring is a multidimensional concept that consists of attributes of the nurse including

professional knowledge, vigilance, and therapeutic communication. Knowledge and

communication are required elements in the practice of all health professionals. We submit,

therefore, that professional vigilance is the essence of caring in nursing, and, as such, defines the

key role of nursing within the health care system.

In my personal opinion, the essence of nursing is giving quality care a patient deserves.

Helping patients in all possible way for them to recover faster. Nursing is never an easy job. You

give selfless services to your patients to attain their optimal health; nurses skip their meals just to

give the medications on time. They hold their pee just to take the patient’s vital signs. They stay

wide-awake just to attend to patient’s concerns and needs.

Nursology

According to Mosby (2009), nursology is a conceptual framework for the study and

practice of nursing. It requires the nurse to interact with the patient in an “authentic” way,

without aloofness and the distance of professionalism; the nurse must take the risk of caring. As

a method, nursology requires that the nurse cut through the defenses and fears that prevent selk-

knowledge. The nurse tries to know the patient on an intuitive, subjective level and then, using

reflection, on an objective, scientific level. The nurse recognizes that each person has an

“angular view” of the whole truth. Comparison of the views of others is necessary for a

perspective that allows a synthesis, often paradoxic but closer to the truth than anyone person’s

Meaning of Nursing 1

angular view. Nursology is intended to provide a model for nursing methods and research. The

nurse and the patient have the opportunity to grow, and the science of nursing may emerge from

the “angular” investigations and syntheses. Paterson and Zderad (1976) defined nursology as the

study of nursing aimed toward the development of nursing theory. Paterson and Zderad proposed

the humanistic nursing model that has its own phenomenological method for describing lived

experiences. The authors call their approach phenomenological nursology. According to them,

phenomenological nursology is a medium through which concept and theory development can

take place. Phenomenologic nursology is comprised of fived phases. The first four phases

involve assessment and the final phase is analogous to nursing diagnosis. The lived experiences

as viewed by the patient unfolds through the therapeutic relationship itself. The phases are

identified as follows (Patterson & Zderad, 1976, pp 144 - 146): Preparation of the nurse knower

for coming to know (the patient). This could be accomplished by the total immersion in selected

and related literary work. Immersion includes reflecting, contemplating, and discussing. Second,

the nurse knowing the other (the patient) intuitively by seeing the world through the eyes of the

subject or the patient, becoming an insider rather than outsider. Third, nurse knowing the other

(the patient) scientifically by replaying the subjective experiences, reflecting on them, and

transcribing the amalgated view. The nurse considers relationships and analyzes, synthesizes,

and then conceptualizes. Then, the nurse complementarily synthesizing known others and

succession within the nurse from the many to the paradoxical one (conclusion). The term

nursology also appeared in the European nursing literature in the mid-70s. Roper, a nurse theorist

from Scotland, argued for the development of a science of nursing labeled nursology, so that

nursing as a discipline might best describe its characteristic mode of thinking. She asserted that

this label would help the scientific nursing community to think nursologically, thus

Meaning of Nursing 1

distinguishing between the practice of nursing, the professional doing of the work of nursing, and

the science of nursing, or the study of nursing practice (Roper, 1976).

My personal definition of nursology is the science and art of nursing.

Discussion and Conclusion

In summary, the definitions mentioned are similar to my personal definition of what

nursing is. It incorporates the key concepts contained in many other definitions of nursing; a

focus on health not merely on sickness, a clientele that includes people of all ages in all settings,

as individuals, families and communities, the promotion of health, prevention of illness and

rehabilitation of the sick, assessing the patient, planning, implementing and evaluating the care

they have provided. It is important to remember that no single definition aforementioned holds

true for all nurses. Trying to capture the meaning accurately is perhaps almost as difficult as

trying to define love because it is interpreted in many ways (Manhart Barrett, 2002, p. 51). Also,

they all agreed that caring is the real essence and a vital component of nursing practice. The

notion of ‘caring’ in nursing has been a given throughout its history. In the past years, caring has

been acknowledged as the essence and core of professional nursing. This focus is evident in

nursing practice, nursing theories, nursing curricula, and nursing’s philosophical and ethical

perspective toward humanity and patient caring relationships. Nursology, from the different

definitions mentioned, it can simply be alleged that it is a conceptual framework for the practice

of nursing and it is not merely the science and art of nursing.

Meaning of Nursing 1

References

Kozier B., Erb G., Berman A., Snyder, S. (2004). The Nature of Nursing, Fundamentals of

Nursing: Concepts, Process and Practice, Second Edition, p.38

International Council of Nurses, (2002). The ICN definition of nursing. Geneva: ICN. Retrieved

from http://www.icn.ch/about-icn/icn-definition-of-nursing/

AJN, American Journal of Nursing (1971, April). Caring is the essence of Practice, Vol. 71,

Issue 4, p. 704-707

Meyer, G., Lavin, M.A. (June 23, 2005). "Vigilance: The Essence of Nursing".OJIN: The Online

Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol 10 No 1.

Valentine, K.L. (1997). Exploration of the relationship between caring and cost. Holistic Nursing

Practice, 11(4), 71-81.

Watson, J. (Ed.). (1994). Applying the art and science of human caring. New York: National

League for Nursing Press.

Lea, A., Watson, R. & Deary, I. (1998). Caring in nursing: a multivariate analysis. Journal of

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Leininger, M. (1984). Care: the essence of nursing and health. New Jersey: Slack.

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