Unit 1:

Introduction to Nursing
(FON)

Prepared by :
Vaishakhi Thakkar
Nursing
Learning objectives
After the completing the unit, student will be able to:
• Define nursing. Explain concept, nature and scopes of nursing.
• Enlist the characteristics of nursing.
• Describe the status of nursing as profession and as a discipline.
• Explain the codes of ethics in nursing.
• Discuss the role & responsibilities of a nurse.
• Identify the qualities of professional nurse and its functions.
Introduction
NURSING >is a disciplined involved in the delivery of health care to the
society.
>is a helping profession
>is service-oriented to maintain health and well-being of people.
>is an art and a science.

The words nurse and nursing have many meanings. The word nursing
itself is derived from the Latin nutrire "to nourish". The word nurse has its
roots in the Latin noun nutrix which means "nursing mother.
Nursing defined
• Nursing is the unique function of the nurse, that is
to assist the individual (sick or well) in the
performance of those activities contributing to
health or its recovery (or to a 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." ”---
ICN(Virginia Henderson )
Definition of Nursing
• Nursing is rearing or bringing up under certain conditions and
certain environment, fostering and cherishing, managing
economically, assisting to develop into a certain form, attending,
trying to cure by taking care of oneself (oxford medical dictionary)
• Nursing is in effect, helping the person to keep well or regain his
health if he is ill (curriculum guide for schools of nursing, 1937)
• Providing an environment that allow nature to act on behalf of the
client( Florence nightingale, 1946)
definition
• Florence Nightingale defined nursing over 100
years ago as "the act of utilizing the
environment of the patient to assist him in his
recovery(Nightingale,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.
 definition
• In 1987,the Canadian Nurses Association(CNA) described nursing
practice as a dynamic, caring, helping relationship in which the nurse
assists the client to achieve and obtain optimal health(CNA,1987).
• Nursing is an art of applying scientific principles in an intelligent
humanitarian way to the care of people experiencing potentially
maladaptive stress. (Toronto, 1980)
Characteristics of Nursing:

• Nursing is caring.
• Nursing involves close personal contact with the recipient of care.
• Nursing is concerned with services that take humans into account
as physiological, psychological, and sociological organisms.
• Nursing is committed to promoting individual, family, community,
and national health goals in its best manner possible.
• Nursing is committed to personalized services for all persons
without regard to color, creed, social or economic status.
• Nursing is committed to involvement in ethical, legal, and political
issues in the delivery of health care.
Principles of Nursing practice
• Care with dignity and humanity
• Responsible for the care they provide and accountable for their
own judgments and actions
• Keep everyone safe in the places they receive health care.
• Involve patients, service users and their families in decisions and
helps them make informed choices about their treatment and
care.
• Handle information sensitively and confidentially, deal with
complaints effectively.
• Have up-to-date knowledge and skills, and use these with
intelligence, insight and understanding in line with the needs of
each individual in their care.
• Work closely with their own team and with other professionals
Core Values In Nursing

A person entering nursing, has a set of personal values that guides his/her
actions. These values are the result of personal choice and are learned
over times.
Values essential to the practice
of professional nursing are:

Aesthetics Altruism Freedom

Qualities of objects,
Equality
Regard for the welfare of The ability to exercise
events and person that Having the same right
others choice or action
provide satisfaction

Justice Human dignity Truth

Fair treatment through
Inherent worth of an Faithfulness to fact or
the upholding of moral
individual reality
and legal principles
Concept of nursing
• The tasks of nursing are: 6. The working place is not only in
1. To promote health the hospital, but also in family,
community and whole society.
2. To prevent disease
7. Nursing is not only a science, but
3. To help ill-person to healing (to also an art.
assist healing)
8. The nursing science attaches
4. To assist the dying patient to pass importance to human being’s living
away with quietude, peace, and environment and the interrelation
dignity. (to ease suffering) between human being and its
5. The client is a holistic human environment.
being, including suffering person 9. The nursing science is a gradually
and healthy person. perfect and developing science
Nature and scope of nursing
practice
• Nurses contribute to health care within a multidisciplinary team. They are
individually accountable for their actions and practice within a statutory
regulatory framework established to protect the public and assure the quality of
nursing services.
• The role of the nurse is constantly changing and developing. This means that
nurses may add new functions to their work. When deciding to do so, nurses
must be sure that patients will benefit and that they are competent for the new
role.
• Teaching individuals, families and communities about healthy lifestyles. This
involves helping them gain the knowledge and skills to control their own health
• Nursing achieves these goals by applying knowledge and skills gained through
education and training, updated and tested by research. It is the combination of
professional knowledge and skills, with the desire to care for others, which
provides the base of nursing. Nursing practice includes:
• Assessing people's health, their health problems and the resources they have to
cope with them; deciding what nursing help is needed and referring them to
other sources of expertise when necessary.
Scopes
There was a time when professional nurses had very little choice of service because
nursing was centered in the hospital and bedside nursing. Career opportunities
are more varied now for a numbers of reasons. The list of opportunities available
are given under:
• Staff Nurse: provides direct patient care to one patient or a group of patients.
Assists ward management and supervision. She is directly responsible to the ward
supervisor.
• Ward sister or Nursing Supervisor: She is responsible to the nursing
superintendent for the nursing care management of a ward or unit. Takes full
charge of the ward. Assigns work to nursing and non-nursing personnel working
in the ward. Responsible for safety and comfort of patients in the ward. Provides
teaching sessions if it is a teaching hospital.
• Department supervisor/Assistant Nursing Superintendent. She is responsible to the
nursing superintendent and deputy nursing superintendent for the nursing care and
management of more than one ward or unit. Example – Surgical department. Out-
patient department.
• Deputy nursing superintendent. She is responsible to the nursing superintendent
and assists in the nursing administration of the hospital.
• Nursing Superintendent She is responsible to the medical superintendent for safe
and efficient management of hospital nursing services.
• Director of Nursing She is responsible for both nursing service and nursing
educations within a teaching hospital.
• Community Health officer (CHO) services rendered mainly focusing Reproductive
Child Health programmes.
• Teaching in nursing. The functions and responsibilities of the teacher in nursing
are planning, teaching and supervising the learning experiences for the students.
Positions in nursing education are clinical instructor, tutor, senior tutor, lecturer,
and associate professor, Reader in nursing and Professor in nursing.
• Industrial nurse Industrial nurses are providing first aid, care during illness,
health educations about industrial hazards and prevention of accidents.
• Military Nurse. Military Nursing service became a part of the Indian Army by
which means nurses became commissioned officers who are given rank from
lieutenant to major general.
• Nursing service abroad Attractive salaries and promising professional
opportunities, which causes a major increase for nursing service in abroad.
• Nursing service administrative positions. At the state level the Deputy Director
of Nursing at the state health directorate. The highest administrative position on
a national level is the Nursing Advisor to the Govt. of India.
Categories of nursing personnel
• Staff nurse • Assistant professor, college • Correctional Nurse
• Senior staff nurse of nursing • Clinical Nurse Educator
• Nursing superintendent • Professor, college of nursing • Informatics Nurse Specialist
grade II • Principal, college of nursing • Telemedicine Nurse
• Nursing superintendent • Senior assistant director of • Quality Management
grade I nursing Nurse Consultant.
• Nursing tutor/clinical • Public health nurse- district • Nurse Life-Care Planner
instructor family welfare bureau
• Lecturer, college of nursing • Legal Nurse Consultant
• Principal, school of nursing • Forensic Nurse
Functions of a nurse
1) Caregiver
• The caregiver role has traditionally included those activities
that assist the client physically and psychologically while
preserving the client’s dignity. Care giving encompasses the
physical, psychosocial, developmental, cultural and spiritual
levels.
• Helps Patient to regain Health
• Accepts the patient as a person not machine
2) Clinical And Ethical Decision Maker:
• Nurse uses critical thinking for
effective care
• Nurse makes decisions when
necessary
• She collaborates with other health
care team members
3) Communicator
• Communication is an integral to all nursing
roles. Nurses communicate with the client,
support persons, other health professionals, and
people in the community.
• In the role of communicator, nurses identify
client problems and then communicate these
verbally or in writing to other members of the
health team.
• The quality of a nurse’s communication is an
important factor in nursing care.
4) Teacher
• As a teacher, the nurse helps clients learn about
their health and the health care procedures they
need to perform to restore or maintain their
health.
• The nurse assesses the client’s learning needs
and readiness to learn, sets specific learning
goals in conjunction with the client, enacts
teaching strategies and measures learning.
5) Protector And advocate:
• Nurse gives safe environment to patient
• Nurse provides immunization
• Nurse asks patient about allergy
• As advocate- Nurse protects the rights and
gives guidance to patients for their well
being
6) Counselor
• Counseling is a process of helping a
client to recognize and cope with
stressful psychological or social
problems, to developed improved
interpersonal relationships, and to
promote personal growth.
• It involves providing emotional,
intellectual, and psychological support.
7) Change agent
• The nurse acts as a change
agent when assisting others,
that is, clients, to make
modifications in their own
behavior.
• Nurses also often act to make
changes in a system such as
clinical care, if it is not helping a
client return to health.
8) Leader
• A leader influences others to work together to
accomplish a specific goal.
• The leader role can be employed at different
levels; individual client, family, groups of clients,
colleagues, or the community.
• Effective leadership is a learned process requiring
an understanding of the needs and goals that
motivate people, the knowledge to apply the
leadership skills, and the interpersonal skills to
influence others.
9) Manager
• The nurse manages the nursing care of
individuals, families, and communities.
• The nurse-manager also delegates nursing
activities to ancillary workers and other nurses,
and supervises and evaluates their performance.
10) Case manager
• Nurse case managers work with the
multidisciplinary health care team to measure
the effectiveness of the case management plan
and to monitor outcomes.
11) Comforter:
• Nurse provides comfort to the patient by caring
for the patients needs.
12) Rehabilitator:
⦁ Nurse helps patient to restore maximum health.
13) Researcher:
⦁ Gains knowledge by research projects , articles,
research study.
• Nursing profession

Nursing as a profession
Nursing profession
• Profession – is that requires special knowledge, skill and
preparation.
• An occupation that requires advanced knowledge and skills
and that it grows out of society’s needs for special services.
Criteria of Profession:
• To provide a needed service to the society.
• To advance knowledge in its field.
• To protect its members and make it possible to practice
effectively.
Characteristics of a Profession:
Well organized
Enlarges body and knowledge
Uses knowledge in practical service
Gives opportunity for higher education
Consists of intellectual people with personal qualities
Follows code of ethics
Affiliates to professional organization
Autonomous
Uses theory as basis for practice
Involve in Research
Qualities of a nurse
• Caring nature:
• Nurses deal with the sick and injured and their families on a daily basis, and must be
able to show that they truly care about the situation.
• Empathic attitude
• Nurses must be able to put themselves in their patients’ shoes to provide the quality
care needed.
• Detail oriented
• Nurses must remember to make entries on patients’ charts and to bring medications
at the correct times.
• Emotionally stable
• Nurses feel the joy of seeing a new baby born as well as the pain of losing a long-
term patient. Emotional stability is crucial to deal with the wide range of emotions
nurses must endure.
• Adaptable
• People are unpredictable at the best of times, but become even more so
under stress, so a nurse’s typical workday will require flexibility and
adaptability.
• Hardworking
• Nursing is a never ending job. It is unusual for a hospital or medical center to
be overstaffed, which of course means more workload on each nurse in the
unit.
• Quick thinker
• When a nurse notices something is not right with a patient, they must be
able to make decisions quickly and put their plans into action instantly,
because a fraction of a second can mean the difference between life and
death.
• Physical endurance
• Nurses are on their feet all day, sometimes 12 or more hours at a time, and
are often required to assist patients with activities that require physical
strength.
• Good judgment
• A nurse must be able to look at a patient’s current state
and accurately assess what is needed, especially during
emergencies.
• Good communication skills
• Nurses must communicate with other nurses, doctors,
patients, and patients’ families clearly.
• Responsible
• Good nurses know how to perform all of their
responsibilities with the utmost accuracy and detail.
They play a major role in assessing and treating patients’
medical conditions, and when dealing with the health of
another human being, there is little room for error, so
nurses must responsibly carry out their duties at all
times.
NURSE
• N – Nobility, Knowledge

• U- Usefulness,
Understanding

• R – Righteousness,
Responsibility

• S- Simplicity, Sympathy

• E - Efficiency, Equanimity
CODE OF ETHICS in nursing
•An international code of ethics for nurses was first
adopted by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in
1953.
1.NURSES AND PEOPLE
2.NURSES AND PRACTICE
3.NURSES AND THE PROFESSION
4.NURSES AND CO-WORKERS
1. NURSES AND PEOPLE
•The nurse’s primary professional responsibility is to people requiring
nursing care. In providing care, the nurse promotes an environment in which
the human rights, values, customs and spiritual beliefs of the individual,
family and community are respected. The nurse ensures that the individual
receives sufficient information on which to base consent for care and related
treatment. The nurse holds in confidence personal information and use
judgments in sharing this information.
2. NURSES AND PRACTICE
•The nurse carries personal responsibility and accountability for nursing
practice, and for maintaining competence by continual learning. The nurse
maintains a standard of personal health such that the ability to provide care
is not compromised. The nurse uses judgment regarding individual
competence when accepting and delegating responsibility. The nurse at all
times maintains standards of personal conduct which reflect well on the
profession and enhance public confidence. The nurse, in providing care,
ensures that use of technology and scientific advances are compatible with
the safety, dignity and rights of people.
3. NURSES AND THE PROFESSION
•The nurse assumes the major role in determining and implementing
acceptable standards of clinical nursing practice, management, research
and education. The nurse is active in developing a core of research-based
professional knowledge. The nurse, acting through the professional
organization, participates in creating and maintaining safe, equitable social
and economic working conditions in nursing.
4. NURSES AND CO-WORKERS
• The nurse sustains a co-operative relationship with co-workers in nursing
and other fields. The nurse takes appropriate action to safeguard
• individuals, families and communities when their health is endangered by
a co-worker or any other person.
THE ANA CODE OF ETHICS
1.The nurse, in all professional relationships, practices with
compassion and respect.
2. The nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient.
3. The nurse promotes, advocates for the rights of the patient.
4. The nurse is responsible and accountable for individual nursing
practice.
5. The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others.
6.The nurse participates in establishing values of the profession.
7.The nurse participates in the advancement of the profession.
8.The nurse collaborates with others to meet health needs.
9.Associations and their members are responsible for the articulating
of nursing values.
Question
• Which are the values essential to the practice of
professional nursing.
• Define nursing.
• Tell any 5 roles of nurse.
• Tell any 3 qualities of a nurse.
Home Work
• Define nursing. Write the characteristics of a nurse.
• List out qualities a professional nurse.
• Explain the scope of nursing.
• Describe the rule and responsibilities of nurse.
“Think about the kind of nurse you would want
to take care of your family or to care for you.
Be that kind of nurse.”
hank you … 