Description
Nursing has been striving for years to improve its status within the health care delivery system. In trying to achieve professional status nursing must define its particular contribution to health care that is unique and valued by the consumer. The opinions of consumers and nurses are important and can provide valuable input regarding nursing practice. Over the past twenty-five to thirty years a wide variety of studies have been implemented in order to determine exactly what consititutes nursing practice—what it is as well as what it should be. Physicians, nurses, patients and the public have offered opinions regarding nursing activities and how these activities should be organized and implemented. Different research methods and statistical analyses have been used and the findings have been conflicting. One consistent research finding has been that, especially in hospital settings, patients, physicians, and nurses agree that the most important nursing activities are related to physicians* orders. This is understandable in light of the fact that people come to hospitals under a physician’s care seeking a medical service and traditionally, nurses have been held most accountable for efficient and accurate execution of physicians* orders., Copyrights are retained by the author.