Text
Fundamental Nursing Skills
In
1859
Florence Nightingale suggested that ‘The elements of nursing are
all but unknown’. It could be argued that this statement remains true
today: some groups maintain that nursing is about keeping clients clean
and well nourished; others that it is about making clients feel safe; others
focus purely on the psychological needs of clients; and yet others think
that it is about carrying out physical tasks delegated by, but remaining
under the auspices of, doctors (Hilton
1997
).
In looking back down the well-trodden path it can be seen that over
the past
150
years or so nursing has slowly evolved from something that
was considered essentially women’s work, which could be undertaken by
any ‘good woman’, was largely concerned with caring for the sick, and
with providing the best environment for nature to take its course, to being
something that is very complex, skilled and sometimes highly technical,
involving health education and promotion as well as meeting a wide vari-
ety of illness-related needs of clients. It is now an occupation that attracts
both men and women whose pay constitutes more than a bottle of gin
(Hilton
1997
).
Indeed, many now contend that nursing has reached the epitome, that
long-strived-for goal of professional recognition (Clay
1987
), as it now has
an academic, secular training programme, a Code of Professional Conduct
(see Appendix I) and its own regulating body, the Nurses and Midwives
Council. It is a profession that is clearly distinct from medicine, where reg-
istered nurses are considered autonomous, accountable practitioners who
work from a soundly researched knowledge base and whose practice is for
the benefit of others
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