Why Nursing is Different

Extract

Before trying to show what this difference is, we must firstly locate the nursing profession among all those other professions that together work to improve health. The very fact that the nurse falls within this category of professions means that she shares a number of characteristics with those working in other fields, e.g. she is devoted to the service of others, she is concerned about the individuality of each person, she has the power to intervene in the physical, psychological or social life of the person in her care, etc. Similarly, we must ignore certain characteristics concerning the particularly low economic status of the nurse, the fact that this profession is an almost exclusively feminine domain and that it commands a rather modest social position.