Nursing surged as a discipline in Europe during the nineteenth century as the primary way to maintain patients in the best possible condition. Afterward, during the middle of the twentieth century, the discipline began taking a more important role, and humanity started viewing nursing as a profession that helps the sick or healthy individual perform activities that contribute to the healing or rehabilitation process, maintain a healthy status, or die a peaceful death.
Today, thanks to its incorporation into the university academic curriculum, access to its professionals at the advanced degree level, and the research conducted in the respective field, the foundation of the profession has advanced significantly. Today, the discussion is focused toward the acceptance of nursing as an applied science. In this sense, nursing has stopped being considered a discipline that aids doctors and is now seen as a new holistic practice that allows the comprehensive and integral care of sick and healthy patients.
Nursing is a profession of high social impact that constantly increases and specializes its functions to meet the needs imposed by the healthcare sector in a world in constant change. The advancement of nursing as a science has been nourished by the new knowledge of medical science, biology, sociology, and psychology. This evolution has occurred in such a way that the professional nurse acquires a solid comprehensive training that allows performance by current conditions to meet the demand imposed by the industry.
Interdisciplinary Links
It is worth noting that nursing interacts with other social sciences, such as psychology and sociology. This is because the focus of these sciences is human beings in the broadest notion. For the nursing professional, it is important to understand the influence of social systems on the behavior of individuals. This allows nurses to establish ties and develop bonds with patients. These bonds will enable the transfer of knowledge that can assist patients in the healing process or prevent them from getting sick.
The practice of nursing is intimately linked both to the problems that affect human life, which is environmental and social and to the advances in medical science regarding treatment. Nursing is also linked with results from advances in genetic sciences, biomedical developments, health administration, and others. This is how the training process and practice of nursing in today’s world is developed under an interdisciplinary approach. Such development is necessary to broaden the analysis of the problems that the profession must face, taking from other sciences such as demography, sociology, psychology, anthropology, epidemiology, among others. These are all elements that allow the sector to answer questions that go beyond clinical care. The implication is that the nursing industry has gone from the conception of the care of the patient under the doctor’s shadow, to broadening the scope of knowledge, finding complementarity in the different methods, and developing cutting-edge research to transform and overcome clinical practice.
Education
In addition to the multiple specialties that exist in nursing such as pediatric, geriatric, emergency, surgical, psychiatric, among others, it is important for the nurse of today to extend training to harmonizing disciplines including psychology, communication, global health, health administration, and human resources. The world demands the incorporation of new competencies and finding more efficient ways of carrying out a nurse’s daily activities. As accredited online degree programs continue to expand, access to training in complementary fields will continue to improve.
Today, nursing education must be competent and include theory and practice. Nurses must be prepared so that practitioners can make profound cultural changes as the healthcare industry moves to meet today’s growing demands. The value of nursing has grown socially, and job opportunities have been globalized. Universities are offering RN to BSN degree programs to shift registered nurses towards advancing in the newly emerging areas of opportunity. The curriculum for the nurse of today and tomorrow has become internationalized. Those seeking opportunities in the field need to keep these new parameters in mind.
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