Nursing concepts, tasks and goals

Since the existence of human beings, there has been the germination of nursing activities. The word "Nursing" is derived from the Latin "Nutricius", which originally means tending, supporting, protecting, caring for the disabled, caring for the young and so on. The definition of nursing, due to the historical background, social development, environment and culture and education and other factors are different, people have different interpretations and explanations. Throughout the history of nursing development, with the development of its theoretical research and clinical practice, its concept and connotation have gradually expanded and extended from the simple "care and care" to the direction of depth. The following are some representative definitions of nursing at different historical stages:

In 1943, Sister Olivia described nursing as a combination of art and science, involving the care of the sick and the improvement of their intellectual, spiritual and physical health.

In 1957, Kreuter defined nursing as "the protection and teaching of the patient to meet the basic needs of the patient who cannot take care of himself." Making the patient comfortable is an important point.

In the 1960s, Dorothy Johnson (Dorothy Johnson) believed that nursing is: some people under a certain stress or pressure, can not meet their needs, the nurse to provide him with technical needs, relieve their stress to restore the original internal balance.

In 1966, Virginia Henderson defined nursing as the activity of helping a healthy or sick person maintain and restore health (or get peace before death) until the sick or healthy person can care for himself independently.

In 1970, Martha Roger stated that nursing is about helping people reach their optimal health potential. The service object of nursing is all people, as long as it is a place of people, there is nursing service.

In 1973, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) defined nursing as "helping a healthy or sick person to maintain or recover health, or to die peacefully."

In the same year, the American Nurses' Association proposed a definition of "nursing practice that directly serves and ADAPTS to the needs of individuals, families, and society in times of health or illness."

In 1980, the American Nurses Association defined nursing as the science of diagnosing and dealing with human responses to existing or potential health problems.

In 1986, China held the first national nursing work conference in Nanjing, and Gu Yingqi, Vice minister of the Ministry of Health, pointed out in his speech: "Nursing work in addition to cooperating with medical implementation of medical orders, more and more important is the comprehensive care of patients and promote their physical and mental recovery."

In 1993, the "Measures for the Management of Nurses" promulgated by the Ministry of Health of China stipulated that nurses, as nursing professionals and technical personnel, should "correctly carry out medical advice, observe the physical and mental conditions of patients, and conduct scientific nursing for patients" in practice. "Nurses have the obligation to undertake the work of prevention and health care, to disseminate knowledge of prevention and treatment of diseases, to give rehabilitation guidance, to carry out health education and to provide health consultation."

The above are the concepts of nursing and the connotation of nursing work elaborated in different periods and different countries in different ways, from which we can see that the object, task and goal of nursing have undergone profound changes, that is, the object of nursing is no longer limited to patients, but extends to people on the edge of disease and healthy people; Nursing work focuses on people and not just diseases, and its task is not only to complete the tasks of treating diseases, but also to undertake psychological and social health care tasks; The goal of nursing is not only to correct the variation of human physiology, but also to strive for the perfection and balance of human psychological and social state. The goal of nursing is to improve the quality of human life on the basis of respect for human needs and rights, and it is embodied by "the promotion of health, the prevention of disease, the restoration of health and the alleviation of suffering". It is not only to maintain and promote the level of individual health, but more importantly, to play a due role in improving the level of human health for families and communities.

The basic attribute of nursing is medical activity, but it has the characteristics of professionalism and service, and provides health services for people with its professional knowledge and technology to meet people's health needs.