Assistant Nursing Jobs

Nursing is a healthcare profession  focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities  so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from birth  to death.

Nurses work in a large variety of specialties where they work independently and as part of a team to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care.

There has never a more exciting time to join the nursing or midwifery profession. The number and variety of roles is huge. As an assistant nurse it is possible to work in, among others, hospitals, GP surgeries, clinics, nursing and residential homes, occupational health services, voluntary organisations that run hospices or residential care and the pharmaceutical industry. Nurses also work in the prison service, university education, on leisure cruise ships or for the armed forces.

Nurses focus on the needs of the individual, rather than specific illnesses or conditions. They help individuals and their families to live more comfortable lives by providing care, advice and counselling.

Midwives are often the key health professional supporting, guiding and caring for the mother, baby and family through the months of pregnancy, during the birth itself and afterwards in the postnatal period.

Nursing comes in various forms in every culture, although the definition of the term and the practice of nursing has being known as a wet nurse and the latter being known as a dry nurse. In the 15th century, this developed into the idea of looking after or advising another, not necessarily meaning a woman looking after a child. Nursing has continued to develop in this latter sense, although the idea of nourishing in the broadest sense refers in modern nursing  to promoting quality of life.

Although nursing practice varies both through its various specialities and countries, these nursing organizations offer the following definitions:

Nursing encompasses autonomous and collaborative care of individuals of all ages, families, groups and communities, sick or well and in all settings. assistant nursing includes the promotion of health, prevention of illness, and the care of ill, disabled and dying people. Advocacy, promotion of a safe environment, research, participation in shaping health policy and in patient and health systems management, and education are also key nursing roles.

Nursing was viewed during the 17th century as a very low job in the social hierarchy. They had a reputation for being drunk and obnoxious, a view amplified by the doctors of the time to make themselves seem more important and able. It was not until Florence Nightingale, a well educated woman from a middle class family, became a nurse and improved it drastically that people began to accept nursing as a respectable profession. Other aspects also helped in the acceptance of nursing. In 1853 Theodore Fliedner set up a hospital where the nurses he employed had to be of good nature. Many people were impressed with this facility and because of it the British Institute of Nursing Sisters was set up.

New Zealand was the first country to regulate nurses nationally, with adoption of the Nurses Registration Act on the 12th of September, 1901. Ellen Dougherty was the first registered nurse. North Carolina was the first state in the United States to pass a nursing licensure law in 1903.

Nurses have experienced difficulty with the hierarchy in medicine that has resulted in an impression that nurses primary purpose is to follow the direction of medics. This tendency is certainly not observed in Nightingale’s Notes on Nursing, where the doctors are mentioned relatively infrequently and often in critical tones, particularly relating to bedside manner.

The modern era has seen the development of nursing degrees and nursing has numerous journals to broaden the knowledge base of the profession. assistant nurses are often in key management roles within health services and hold research posts at universities.