Society undergoes a continuous process of change, the rate of which is accelerating. Nursing is an essential component of the multidisciplinary health-care system, within which it shares the responsibility for meeting societal health care needs. The goals of nursing are the promotion, restoration, and maintenance of health and the support and comfort of the sick and dying. Nursing is committed to the care and nurturing of both healthy and ill individuals, groups, and communities. The art of professional nursing practice is based on knowledge from the science of nursing, the related sciences and humanities, and other professional disciplines.
Nursing practice is influenced by setting, specialty, and social and technological advances.
Nursing practice in some instances involves direct client care and at other times requires indirect interventions on behalf of clients. Education is an interactive process between learners and teachers which is influenced in part by varying learning rates, styles, stages of learner development, and learner capacities to synthesize and use knowledge. Faculty facilitate active learning by structuring the learning environment, organizing facts and ideas, modeling desired behaviors, promoting a spirit of inquiry, and encouraging autonomy, creativity, and personal development using a variety of information systems. Students are responsible for the active pursuit of knowledge, preparation for and participation in learning experiences, involvement in activities and organizations concerned with current issues, generation of new areas of inquiry through critical thinking and problem solving, and continuation of personal development. Education for the profession involves the acquisition of a body of specialized knowledge and skills and the socialization of the learner into the professional role necessary to function in an increasingly technological society.