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

Nurse Request For Safer Work Environment Ignored, Australia
Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:00:00 -0800
The Australian Nursing Federation is deeply disappointed that nurses who are working in unsafe hospitals and environments may have to wait up to three months before employers are forced to act on their concerns. The ANF recently highlighted the rising trend of nurses coming under physical attack from drug and alcohol affected patients...
ANF: Let Nurses Give Consumers More Choice, Australia
Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:00:00 -0800
The Australian Nursing Federation's submission to the Health Legislation Amendment Bill rejects outright any requirement which forces nurse practitioners and midwives to seek doctor approval for patient care they are capable of doing autonomously. ANF Federal Secretary Ged Kearney said it was time doctors stopped trying to have it both ways...
Joint Statement On Collaborative Care - Australian Medical Association
Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:00:00 -0800
Three of Australia's peak medical groups called on the Senate Community Affairs Committee that is inquiring into the Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009 and two related Bills to support the Government's amendments to the Bill...

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

Nurse staffing and post-surgical complications using the present on admission indicator
Barbara A. Mark, David W. Harless Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:03:00 -0000
We evaluated the relationship between registered nurse (RN) staffing and six post-surgical complications: pneumonia, septicemia, urinary tract infections, thrombophlebitis, fluid overload, and decubitus ulcers, in a dataset that contained the present on admission (POA) indicator. We analyzed a longitudinal panel of 283 acute care hospitals in California from 1996 to 2001. Using an adaptation of the Quality Health Outcomes Model, we found no statistically significant relationships between RN staffing and the complications. In addition, the signs of the relationships were opposite to those expected. That is, as staffing increased, so did some of the complications. We discuss potential reasons for these anomalous results, including the possibility that increases in RN staffing may result in earlier detection of complications. Other explanations include issues with risk adjustment, the lack of nurse level variables in the model, and issues with the POA indicator itself. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health
What's in a name? Qualitative description revisited
Margarete Sandelowski Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:42:00 -0000
"Whatever Happened to Qualitative Description?" (Sandelowski, 2000) was written to critique the prevailing tendency in qualitative health research to claim the use of methods that were not actually used and to clarify a methodological approach rarely identified as a distinctive method. The article has generated several misconceptions, most notably that qualitative description requires no interpretation of data. At the root of these misconceptions is the persistent challenge of defining qualitative research methods. Qualitative description is a "distributed residual category" (Bowker & Star, 2000). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press) in the classification of these methods. Its value lies not only in the knowledge its use can produce, but also as a vehicle for presenting and treating research methods as living entities that resist simple classification. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Res Nurs Health
Getting it right
Margarete J. Sandelowski Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:41:00 -0000
No Abstract.

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