LESSON 4 FUNDAMENTALS IN NURSING .docx - LESSON 4: Concept...

LESSON 4: Concept of nursing
Definitions Of Nursing
 “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 these activities
contributing to heath or its recovery
(or to peaceful death) that he would
perform unaided if he had the
necessary strength, will, or
knowledge, and to do this in such a
way as to help him gain
independence as rapidly as possible”
(Henderson, 1966)
 Certain themes are common to
many of these definitions:
1. Nursing is caring
2. Nursing is an art
3. Nursing is a science
4. Nursing is client centered
5. Nursing is holistic
6. Nursing is adaptive
7. Nursing is concerned with health
promotion, health maintenance,
and health restoration
8. Nursing is a helping profession
 “Direct, goal oriented, and
community during health and
illness” (ANA, 1973)
 Nursing is the diagnosis and
treatment of human responses to
actual or potential health problems”
(ANA, 1980)
 “Nursing is the protection,
promotion, and optimization of
health and abilities, preventions of
illness and injury, alleviation of
suffering through diagnosis and
treatment of human response, and
advocacy in the care of the
individuals, families, communities,
and populations” (ANA, 2015)
Recipients of Nursing
 The recipients of nursing are
sometimes called consumers,
sometimes patients, and
sometimes clients.
 Consumer - is an individual, a
group of people, or a community,
that uses a service or commodity.
 Patient - is a person who is
waiting for or undergoing medical
treatment and care. Patient
comes from a Latin word meaning
“to suffer” or “to bear”.
 Client - is a person who engages
the advice or services of another
who is qualified to provide their
service. The term client presents
the receivers of health care as
collaborations in the care, that is,
as people who are also
responsible for their own health.
Thus, the health status of a client
is the responsibility of the
individual in collaboration with
health professionals.
Scope of Nursing
1. Individuals - is a unique being who
is different from every other human
being, with a different combination
of genetics, life experiences, and
environmental interactions.
2. Families - is a basic unit of society. It
consist of those individuals, male or
female, youth or adult, legally or not
legally related, genetically or not
genetically related, who are

considered by others to represent
their significant people.
3. Communities - is a collection of
people who share some attribute of
their lives and interact with other in
some way.
Nursing practice involves four areas:
promoting health and wellness,
preventing illness, restoring
health, and caring for the dying.
PROMOTING HEALTH AND
WELLNESS
 When health is defined broadly as
actualization of human potential, it
has been called wellness (Pender,
Murdaugh, Parsons, 2011).