The Elusive Subject: What Is Nursing?

I have been thinking of writing a blog on “what is nursing”. At first I thought it was an easy task, a piece of cake and a walk in the park. I have been studying it for four years so how hard could it be? Well, after hours and hours of sitting in front of the computer reading article after article, typing and erasing and retyping and erasing again, I am near the point of giving up. I was entirely wrong. It is hard to define nursing or even to write about it.

It’s not that I don’t know what nursing is. Of course I know what it is. It’s just that nursing is such a huge concept that I don’t know where to begin. I tried starting off with technical definitions of nursing from dictionaries but it was…too technical. I mean, defining nursing as caring for the sick? No. It won’t do at all. Nursing is more than that.

So I tried tackling it at a different angle, by taking it from the points of view from the many nursing theorists. They have such precise definitions of nursing but there are too many of them and not one had wholly encompassed what nursing is in all it’s forms and specialties. Hmm…it is such an elusive subject.

Looks like it’s back to the drawing board for me.

There is still about the art and science of nursing. That should get me somewhere. Hopefully. What I got was this: nursing is an applied science having its own body of knowledge and utilizing the principles of physiological, biological and behavioral sciences. The heart of nursing is the holistic care of a person. It emphasizes in promoting, maintaining, restoring and caring for terminal clients across the lifespan. This one’s good. I really held on to this the entire time.

As for the art of nursing, I couldn’t put in the right words to string up a sentence to do it justice but I did find one that hits the bulls eye. It is from Mary Mallison, RN. She was an editor of American Journal for Nursing. She said, “nursing like dance or painting is not primarily an art of the written word. It’s partly Kinaesthetic - transmitted in facial expressions, posture, touch, silences, gestures, timing, intent. Attempts to pin it down with language is like chasing butterflies: It’s most beautiful in motion, flitting freely outside the net of words.”

After much thought, I have realized that you can’t define nursing by simply putting words to it. Nursing is a life. It is everywhere whether you have a license or not. Looking after your sick brother is nursing. Comforting a friend who has been hurt is nursing. It is in everything and in everyone.

So much for the task that I thought was hard.

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