Nurses recognize that in providing health promotion, disease prevention, and illness care, they become part of the existing environment of the client system, necessitating both scientific knowledge of how the system functions, and artful collaboration with appropriate components of the system to effect care. Health is a dynamic state of biological, psychological, behavioral, and social well-being and reflects each client system's ability to alter its environments, or to adjust to or evolve with environmental changes. Wellness and illness are socially and individually defined concepts representing the degree of variation in the client system's ability to alter or adjust to its environments. Consistent with a focus on primary health care, the nurse recognizes the client system's ability and responsibility to engage in self-assessment and health care behaviors. Nursing is a practice profession with a defined body of knowledge and goals.
Nursing makes a unique and valuable contribution within the health care system and society.
The profession provides a social structure to develop legitimate professional roles for its members. The art of nursing involves intuition, creativity, caring and application of nursing therapeutics, communication skills, and supportive interpersonal processes. These aesthetic considerations are integrated with knowledge from the natural and behavioral sciences through critical thinking and systematic investigation. Together the art and science of nursing provide insights for the profession in meeting its mission of providing for the health care needs of clients in home, community, or institutional health care delivery settings. Fulfillment of this mission involves the use of the nursing process to promote and maintain health and wellness, prevent illness, diagnose and manage potential or actual health problems, facilitate adaptation to health impairments, assist rehabilitation, and maximize the opportunity for dignity in living and dying.