Sim Tech Series – Article 1
The Profession of Nursing
This article is part of a series of HealthySimulation.com posts written by Nursing Educator Kim Baily for Healthcare Simulation Technology specialists (Sim Techs) who may have plenty of IT experience but little or no experience in the healthcare field. The articles cover various topics such as understanding healthcare professions, theories that govern practice and basic physiology.
Image of Nursing:
What images do you conjure up when you hear the word “nurse”? Perhaps you envisage Florence Nightingale pictorialized in the newspapers as the “Lady of the Lamp”, flitting from one Crimean War victim to another bringing hope and healing. Or perhaps you see Nurse Ratched, from One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, hassling Jack Nicholson. Or perhaps you see the more contemporary junky Nurse Jackie from SHOWTIME. What ever your image, plenty of stereotypes abound.
The International Council of Nurses definition of Nursing:
“Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. Nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles” (1). As you can see from this lengthy definition, Nursing encompasses many different roles for the modern nurse. Nurses care for patients at the bedside, in the emergency depart, the OR, physician’s offices, home health care setting, schools, camps, correctional facilities, military facilities, and national, federal organizations and so on. Some nurses continue their education and obtain masters degrees becoming nurse practitioners or nurse anesthetists, others clime the ranks of academia with masters and/or doctoral degrees. (Continue reading through the link below).
