In the mid-19th century Florence Nightingale deplored the fact that nursing was then considered to be “little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices”. It is curious that even today many people consider nursing to be simply a series of tasks carried out by the nurse. Undoubtedly, observable tasks are a very important aspect of nursing but this restrictive interpretation does not take account of the thinking processes which are involved before, during and after any observable task.

Throughout the world, various authors have attempted to find a definition of nursing which puts emphasis on why activities are performed rather than limiting attention to what is done – the observable tasks – and the following definition by Virginia Henderson is one of the most frequently quoted: “Nursing is primarily assisting the individual (sick or well) in the performance of those activities contributing to health, or its recovery (or to a peaceful death) that he would perform unaided if he had the necessary strength, will or knowledge”. It is likewise the unique contribution of nursing to help the individual to be independent of such assistance as soon as possible. ( Henderson, 1960).

Nursing process is central to nursing actions in any setting. It is an efficient method of organizing thought processes for clinical decision-making and problem-solving, when planning and delivering patient care. In its early developmental years, nursing did not seek or have the means to control its own practice. Florence Nightingale, in discussing the nature of nursing, observed that “nursing has been limited to signify little more than the administration of medicines and the application of poultices” ( Nightingale, 1859).

While this societal attitude has persisted into the present, the nursing profession has been working to define what it is that uniquely characterizes what nurses do that other healthcare providers do not do, and to identify nursing’s body of professional knowledge.

The nursing profession has identified a problem-solving process that “combines the most desirable elements of the art of nursing with the most relevant elements of systems theory using the scientific method”. This Nursing Process was introduced in the 1950s as a three-step process of assessment, planning, and evaluation based on the scientific method of observing, measuring, gathering data, and analyzing the findings.

Years of study, use, and refinement have led nurses to expand the nursing process to five concrete steps which provide an efficient method of organizing thought processes for clinical decision-making, problem-solving, and the delivery of higherquality, individualized patient care. According to the steps of the nursing process, when a patient enters the healthcare system, the nurse

Finally, after these interventions have been carried out, the nurse evaluates the effectiveness of the plan of care in reaching the desired outcomes and goals to determine whether or not the problems have been resolved and the patient is ready to leave the system. If the identified problems remain 6 unresolved, further assessment, additional problem identification, alteration of outcomes and goals, and /or changes of interventions is required.