The phenomenon of nursing appears in many forms in the real lived world.
It varies with the age of the patient, the pathology or disability, the
kind and degree of help needed, the duration of the need for help, the
patient's location and his potential for obtaining and using help, and
the nurse's perception of the need and her capacities for responding to
it. Nursing varies also in relation to the sociocultural context in
which it occurs. Being one element in an evolving complex system of
health care, nursing is continuously appearing in new specialized forms.
As professionals, we are accustomed to viewing nursing as we practice it
within these specialty contexts--for example, pediatric, medical,
rehabilitation, intensive care, long-term care, community. There seems
to be no end to the proliferation of diversifications. Even the attempts
of practitioners to combine specialties give rise to new specialties,
such as, community mental health nursing and child psychiatric nursing.
So it is difficult to focus on the phenomenon of nursing as an entity
without having one's view colored by a particular clinical, functional,
or societal context. Yet, if we can "bracket" (hold in abeyance) these
adjectival labels and the preconceived viewpoints they signify, we can
consider the thing itself, the act of nursing in its most simple and
general appearance. {12}