Associate degree nursing is the delivery of care to individuals with health care needs in a variety of settings. In the role as provider of care, the nurse collaborates with the patient, family and other members of the health care team to assist the patient to reach goals aimed toward promoting and restoring optimal health, preventing illness, providing rehabilitation, or providing comfort to the dying. The nurse focuses upon health care needs resulting from stressors and changes in growth and development which interfere with the patient's comfort and safety resulting in biopsychosocial disequilibrium or decline. The delivery of care requires the use of the nursing process for assessing, identifying nursing diagnoses, planning nursing interventions, implementing interventions and evaluating nursing care. The nurse must have the knowledge and ability to utilize a wide range of psychomotor skills and biopsychosocial principles to provide competent care.
Communication is a vital part of the nursing process by which stressors are identified.
The individual's unique biopsychosocial responses to stressors and cultural background are considered in providing nursing care. Caring and personal accountability are characteristics which assist the associate degree nurse in providing quality nursing care. In the role as manager of care, the associate degree nurse works in a cooperative relationship with other members of the health care team in order to provide high quality health care. In fulfilling this role, the nurse must have the ability to apply theory and to know when to act independently or to seek more expert guidance. The nurse functions as an interdependent member of a health care team which may consist of several educational and experiential levels of providers.