Nursing involves promoting health, preventing illness, alleviating suffering, diagnosing and treating human responses to illness. Nurses protect patients, recognize them as whole individuals, and help patients understand their health needs and navigate the healthcare system. Nurses are problem solvers, guardians, and cost-effective members of the healthcare team who save lives, prevent suffering, and save money through their medical knowledge and caring approach.

1. Nursing
WHAT IS A NURSE?

2. What is Nursing?
Nursing is the protection, promotion, and
optimization of health and abilities,
prevention of illness and injury, alleviation of
suffering through the diagnosis and treatment
of human response, and advocacy in the care
of individuals, families, communities, and
populations.
American Nurses Association

3. Nurses’
Hold the publics trust
The Annual Gallup Poll consistently ranks nurses as the
most trustworthy profession

4. Nurses
Recognize that patients are more than a set of
symptoms that need to be treated
The patient is a whole person-- looking at the physical,
spiritual, emotional, and psycho-social needs. What this
ultimately means to patients is that we will listen to
them, we will advocate for them, and we will give them
the information they need to make informed decisions--
and then support them in those decisions.

5. Nurses
 Help patients navigate the system and
understand health needs.
 Spends time interacting with patients
than nurses.

6. Nurses
 Are puzzle solvers and guardians
 Are cost effective

7. Nursing is a package of medical, technical,
caring, nursing know-how -- that nurses save
lives, prevent suffering, and save money.

8. Resources
 Gordon, S. (2006) What do nurses really do. Topics
in Advanced Practice Nursing eJournal. 2006;6(1)
© 2006 Medscape
 AACN (n.d.) Value of Nursing. Retrieved from
http://www.aaacn.org/cgi-
bin/WebObjects/AAACNMain.woa/1/wa/viewSectio
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