This article focuses on the history and practice of nursing. See the article Nurses for more information on the education and regulation of nurses. For nursing in the sense of breastfeeding, see Breastfeeding.

Nursing is a profession focused on assisting individuals, families and communities in attaining, re-attaining and maintaining optimal health and functioning. Modern definitions of nursing define it as a science and an art that focuses on promoting quality of life as defined by persons and families, throughout their life experiences from birth to care at the end of life.

History of nursing

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Nursing / Midwifery News From Medical News Today

NMC Launches First Annual Devolved Dialogue In Scotland
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
We launched our devolved dialogue programme in Scotland this week; members of the NMC will meet with Scottish politicians, public and patient groups, regional trade union representatives, nurse directors and other partners, to discuss the core priorities for nursing and midwifery regulation in Scotland, examining how these differ from the rest of the UK and how we can address them as a four-country regulator.
Nurses And Midwives To Receive Whistleblowing Guidance From Regulator, UK
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800
Nurses and midwives are to have guidance to help them raise and escalate concerns in a way that won't get them into trouble with their regulator. Since the summer we have been working with key professional and patient groups to develop information that will support nurses and midwives to raise and escalate concerns they may have that people could be at risk of harm.
New Sleep Medicine Research Presented At CHEST 2009
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:00:00 -0800
CPAP Therapy Associated With Slight Weight Gain (#7833) Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a common therapy for sleep apnea, is associated with a slight but temporary weight gain in patients. Researchers from the University of Toledo Medical College in Ohio followed 152 patients who underwent CPAP therapy for 1 month. Of the patients, 119 (78 percent) gained an average of 3 lbs. Weight gain occurred in 81 percent of men and 73 percent of women.

Journal of Research in Nursing current issue

The professional obligation; speaking out to improve care
Stevens, J.
Fifty years of endeavour, prevention and health in mental health policy
Appleby, L., Butterworth, T.
Mental health policy to practice; too much loose change?
McGonagle, I., Jackson, C., Baguley, I.Mental health, cancer care and coronary heart disease were identified as the three priorities for the National Health Service, and National Service Frameworks were developed for each area. This prioritisation was reinforced when the NHS Plan was published and a programme of systemic change in the National Health Service was embarked upon to support this new agenda. This paper describes the major policy decisions and systemic changes and how they affected mental health care. The end of the 10-year National Service Framework programme provides an opportune time to review and reflect on the changes, successes and areas for on-going improvement in the years ahead. Clearly there have been significant developments, and perhaps the successes of the last 10 years have been lost in the clutter that often results as a consequence of major change.

Evidence-Based Nursing current issue

Purpose and procedure

New beginnings
Ciliska, D., Jull, A., Thompson, C.
Accessing pre-appraised evidence: fine-tuning the 5S model into a 6S model
DiCenso, A., Bayley, L., Haynes, R B.

Research in Nursing & Health

Data management for intervention effectiveness research: Comparing deductive and inductive approaches
Karen A. Monsen, Bonnie L. Westra, Fang Yu, Vijay Kumar Ramadoss, Madeleine J. Kerr Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:58:00 -0000
Management approaches are needed to prepare intervention data sets for research. We identified four management approaches and applied them to Omaha System intervention data from 15 home care agencies (621,385 interventions provided to 2,862 patients). Classifying intervention data created differing numbers of distinct groups for deductive approaches labeled as action category (four groups), theoretical (5), and clinical expert consensus (23). One inductive, data-driven approach generated 150 groups of interventions, of which 24 were meaningful and unique. Interventions in deductive groups were mutually exclusive, and approaches mapped readily according to intervention action terms. The novel, overlapping, inductive groups consisted of diverse actions for multiple problems. The four management approaches created meaningful intervention groups to be employed in future outcomes evaluation studies. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health
Understanding systems and rhythms for minority recruitment in intervention research
Vicki Hines-Martin, Barbara J. Speck, Barbara Stetson, Stephen W. Looney Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:58:00 -0000
We describe one approach for recruitment and retention of minority individuals in intervention research using a systematic environmental perspective based on Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems (BES) model and the construct of temporality. An exemplar in a physical activity intervention study with low-income and primarily African American women is presented. The exemplar illustrates application of BES and temporality to enhance recruitment and retention in research focused on understanding and accommodating environmental influences. Using this theory based approach resulted in successful recruitment and a high level of participant retention. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health
Effects of stress and social support on postpartum health of Chinese mothers in the United States
Ching-Yu Cheng, Rita H. Pickler Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:40:00 -0000
Postpartum maternal well being across cultures has received limited research attention. We examined relationships among stress, social support, and health in 152 Chinese mothers <1 year postpartum in the United States. These mothers did not perceive high levels of stress, although they did not receive as much support as they indicated they needed; 23.7% of mothers scored high for depressive symptoms. About half of the mothers experienced interrupted sleep, decrease in memory, and lack of sexual desire. All health measures were inter-correlated. Social support moderated the effects of stress on depressive symptoms. Culturally relevant care that is perceived as supportive may promote postpartum maternal health. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health

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